


Harry Potter Secrets of the Dream

by DarkPhoenixLady



Series: The Deep Dream [2]
Category: Celtic Mythology, Cthulhu Mythos - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Fantasy, Genderfluid Harry, Horror, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Slice of Life, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:15:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 98,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27698173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkPhoenixLady/pseuds/DarkPhoenixLady
Summary: A new year and new challenges.  Harry and Hermione return to Hogwarts with their friends and family, however, the recent passage through The Dream has not gone unnoticed.  Read as they have to deal with a monster in the school and an increasing threat from The Dream.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Petunia Evans Dursley/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Deep Dream [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995562
Comments: 40
Kudos: 26





	1. Prologue

Aityo was running for her life as a spinewolf split away from the pack to chase her. Her life-partner had stayed behind to allow her to escape with their child. Her magic was nearly exhausted from trying to pop away from the predators, but they were muddying the Aether too much for her to go far, and now there was only one she didn’t think she’d be able to summon up enough to escape even if she had time. She runs around a rocky outcropping hoping that there will be a cave or hidey hold that she can crawl into where the spinewolf can’t find her. But there’s nothing. 

In front of her she sees a group of strangely dressed Sidhe, she’s just gone from the spit to the coals. Desperately she tries to pop away, but the wolf is still to close for the amount of magic she has left, so she’s left staggering a few paces away from her original position. She feels the magic around her twist as the spinewolf launches it’s spines at her. She pops in place hoping to get the timing right so that they appear while she’s absent. The Sidhe are fading out, so she only has to try and escape the one predator now, that’s a relief.

She’s dying, she knows she’s dying, she was almost out of magic when she was brought here, where ever here is, and now there’s barely enough in the Aether for her to survive if she wasn’t depleted. She’s vaguely aware that one of the Sidhe has moved her, but she can’t feel them in the Aether, and she doesn’t have the energy to even pay attention to her surroundings. An agonising amount of time later the Sidhe is suddenly there in the Aether, and they are radiating so much magic that she can finally start to recover. The Sidhe says something she doesn’t understand or recognise, which is odd, but she doesn’t have enough magic to care. Another Urisk pops in and says something to the Sidhe, before taking them all away somewhere.

Once there she seems to be in a dwelling of some description, though it bears no resemblance to any of the Sidhe outposts that she’s seen, maybe these are a different group. These not Sidhe were sitting around and doing absolutely nothing with magic, that’s what made her decide that they were not Sidhe. There was only one other that was strong enough to be felt in the Aether, and wasn’t that strange, that one also seemed to have some sort of pet that she could sense. She watched them speak to the other Urisk and suddenly they were detectable in the Aether too, when they offered their hand to share magic she suspected that it was a trap, so she tried to ask them. When they didn’t show any recognition she tried the Sidhe language, not seeing any recognition from that, the offer of magic was too tempting so she took their hand. As soon as she had enough magic she went around the world and couldn’t find anywhere that had anywhere close to the level of magic in the Aether that she was expecting. Maybe they weren’t even related to the Sidhe.

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

Azaria knelt down by the remains a spinewolf that had been hunting their breeding stock of urisk. She’d been tasked to retrieve the ones that were being hunted or verify their deaths. The Aetheric trail lead to here, but she could see no sign of the female, or any trace of her getting away. It was odd, almost like she disappeared through the Dream, but she couldn’t sense any signatures from the higher realms. She also couldn’t recognise anything from the other worlds towards the desert, those worlds that don’t have enough magic to sustain their lives. Azaria pulls out a crystal and records the signatures of what she can feel, the crystal turning into a ball as it takes on the memory imprint. She’d take it back to the outpost, maybe someone else would recognise it, it could also be related to the appearance of one of the sleepers a while ago, she’d also heard rumours from one of the foraging parties to the shores of the sea of dreams that one of the old gods had been abroad.


	2. Chapter 1

# Chapter 1

Albus has been interrogating this shard of Voldemort for a few months now, and he’s sure that he’s close to finding out how he kept himself alive. Preparing himself for another interrogation he picks up the mirror from his bedside and cast Legimancy on it. The familiar slightly dirty feeling overtook him as he found himself sitting in a dormitory, bombs going off in the distance. He wonders if any of the bombs will fall here. Glancing up at the electric clock on the wall he sees that the time is almost Midnight.

The air-raid siren goes off in the town, a deep wailing sound that penetrates the halls and wakes up those few who were able to sleep. Reaching under his pillow he grabs his wand and hides it under his sleeve, if a bomb dropped in the shelter there was no way he wasn’t going use magic to free himself if necessary. As he was following the other children, the walls took on a red hue and became increasingly transparent. Panicking he looks around wildly to see what’s going on, reaching out he grabs the dorm minders that is bringing up the rear, and they both find themselves sanding on a rocky desert, a hint of green on the horizon to the south. The minder backfists him away.

“What have I said about using your powers on the people here, return us or else!”

He scrambles backwards in fear as he sees a rainforest starting to overlay the world, and a tall, lean man of dead black colouration but without the slightest sign of African features: wholly devoid of either hair or beard, and wearing as his only garment a shapeless robe of some heavy black fabric walking up behind the minder. His steps odd, as though he was watching a film with missing frames. The rainforest snapping out of existence as he gets closer. As he gets closer the clicking of footsteps ring out across the land and the atmosphere becomes oppressive. The minder collapses to his knees, moaning incoherently under the pressure and Albus couldn’t stand even if he wanted to. The figure reaches a single ebony finger and touches the minders back just above the pelvis and draws it up towards the head, a faint blue outline following it. As it reaches the skull he pulls it back and the minder collapses as a blue orb comes free from his head. The figure brings the orb to his mouth and takes a bite out of it, as it seems to writhe in agony on his finger. Waving it’s other hand a table and pair of comfortable chairs appears. 

Realising just what it is that it’s eating Albus desperately tries to exit the memory, but finds himself moving with the memory and sitting in the chair.

“Come Albus, you should sit and chat like Tom did. Share some food and drink and tell me about the world. Oh don’t worry about your mortal shell, it’s safe where you left it. But when you touched this memory you also touched the mark I left on young Tom’s soul. Oh, I can see from the shard you hold that he tried very hard to rid himself of it, but no the mark was still there. Or is it still there, after all maybe he succeeded accidentally when this shard was created, and you’ve just happened to find it. Tell you what, let’s see what you come up with.”

With that he leans forward over the table and touches the cowering Albus on the forehead, his finger sinking in up to the second knuckle and a searing pain flooded through his body.

“Such an interesting thing memory walking, it allows one to gain great knowledge. But the risk is always there that if the one you are reading is stronger than you, you can be trapped in the memory while they are free to change the script.”

Albus can faintly hear the song of a phoenix as if coming from a great distance.

“Ah, it looks like our time here is now done, I’ll see you when you sleep tonight and we can continue this conversation. Until then, remember, you are mine because you put yourself at my mercy whether you knew it or not. When you die I will get everything you are, but until then you are safe, unless you wish to walk the dream. If you do that, do remember to bring a sacrifice, as it takes a life to leave my presence here.”

Albus comes back to himself, Fawkes singing a song he’s never heard before.

“Thank you my friend, thank you for pulling me out of that.” He reaches out to stroke Fawkes breast feathers, but the phoenix backs out of reach.

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

Harry and Hermione were both watching Petunia arguing with Molly in the middle of Diagon Alley while Ginny watched on with desperate attention. The subject? Ginny’s wand, apparently they didn’t have any old wands that reacted to her so Molly wanted to take her to Ollivanders because it was cheap with the ministry discount.

“Look, what I’m saying is that it’s worth spending out the extra gold for the perfect tool that is likely to last her a life time, rather than pay less for something that may be an ok match, for less than half the price.”

“But she’s only 11, and things break. So why spend the money on something that I may have to replace in a few years time?”

“How long have you had your wand?”

“I’ve had it since I got it from Ollivanders when I was 11.”

Petunia looked at her as if she was being stupid deliberately, “So given that you’ve kept the same wand for at least 25 years, you want to scrimp on a wand for your daughter?”

“We’re not exactly rolling in money, we didn’t by Ron a wand because his Great Uncle Dominic’s wand reacted for him.”

“Fine, spend your money on buying Ron a new wand and I’ll buy both Ginny and Dudley’s wands. Come on Ginny, Dudley, we going to get your wands.”

Harry chose that moment to speak up, “Mum, do you mind if we going and get our books while you’re doing that?”

“Sure, go ahead I’ll just give you some money.”

Taking the money they head down to Flourish and Botts where the rest of the Weasleys are, and see a massive queue outside the store.

“What do you think’s going on?” Harry asks Hermione.

“I don’t know, we’ll find out when we get there.”

A moment later they met the Twins, Ron, and Percy with their father queuing.

“What’s going on?” Harry asks

“Lockhart is doing a book signing today, and all of these witches are queuing to get a signed copy. I’m surprised that Mum’s not here yet.” Fred responds

Hermione responded, “Oh, she was arguing with Petunia about Ginny’s wand, as she wanted to take her to Ollivander’s while Petunia wanted her to spend the extra money to get a perfect match.”

“Who’s Petunia?” Ron asks

“Mrs Dursley.”

“Oh, why didn’t you call her that then?”

Hermione blushes slightly at a memory, “I was told quite firmly earlier in the summer that it made her feel quite old, so I should either call her Petunia, or Aunt.”

“Oh… What was the outcome of the conversation?”

“Mum’s buying both wands, and she said that your mum should spend the money on getting you a new wand.”

“Oh, cool! Dad, can I go and find Mum please?”

“Huh! Ok, it looks like we’ll be here for a while anyway.”

“Ron, before you go. Mr Weasley, is there any reason why you need to buy your books here?”

“No, not really though I don’t really want to go to the second hand bookshop.”

“What about Whizz Hard Books between the Daily Prophet offices and Twilfitt?”

“We could give it a try.”

“OK, we’ll show you where it is, before Ron gets his wand. Ollivander’s is just across the Alley so it should be easy for them to find us.”

They took a quick walk back up the Alley to find Molly, who was browsing a stall next to Florean’s that was selling scarves. As soon as they spotted her Ron ran up to her.

“Mum, is it true, can I get my own wand?”

Molly turned around and looked at the hopeful expression on Ron’s face, the last of her anger fading in the “Yes sweetie, we can get you a new wand.”

“Molly, we’ll be in the bookshop over here when you’re finished.” Arthur indicates the door that Harry and Hermione are standing by.

“Well I never, I thought that was an office or something. Very well, I’ll send Ron in if we finish before you. I’m still going to queue to get a signed Lockhart book though.”

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

Lucius Malfoy watched the Weasley family walk away from Flourish and Blotts, his hands sweaty in his gloves, they were the best bet for getting rid of the diary that felt like it was burning a hole in his robe pocket. He’d gotten a tip off that he was going to be raided in the next few days under suspicion of having dark artefacts. It wasn’t the first time he’d been raided, but just in case he’d double checked his protections on the Cellar, and they were all working fine. He’d then cast the standard detection charms that he’d learnt from an old Auror handbook and something showed up outside the Cellar, which wasn’t fine. So here he was, trying to find a way to get rid of the blasted diary that showed up, he had a feeling it was important, but he could worry about it after the Auror’s had done their inspection.

There, one of the crazy women just knocked a muggleborn boy down, that’s perfect. Smoothly moving over he helps their parents pick up their things and slips the diary into the folds of the boy’s robes.

“I hope that you’re child is ok, and I hope that this doesn’t sour your impression of the wizarding world. If you don’t mind me making a suggestion, if you head down towards the bank there’s a bag shop next to the junk shop, and you’ll be able to buy him a bottomless book bag.”

“Oh, thank you, we’re so new to the wizarding world.”

“Don’t mention it.” _Really, don’t mention it, if possible forget who I am completely._


	3. Chapter 2

Hermione was currently trying not to laugh as she watched harry sitting as a boy at the Weasley’s trying very hard not to switch to a girl as he was laughing at Ginny’s description of her time shopping. Luna looked absolutely engrossed while Dudley looked bored. They were here because her parents were at work, and Aunt Petunia, that still felt wrong to her, was running one of her muggle tours at their house. She’d tried to engage Ron in conversation earlier, but he was off in his own little world playing chess against the computer that Harry had bought him for Christmas. He hadn’t even noticed that he currently sported bright green hair, or that his clothes had chess pieces battling each other on them, though I don’t think he’d mind that one.

“Dudley, could I share your mum full time please?” Hermione noticed that Molly froze at that announcement, she also noticed that Harry noticed too and had stilled as if waiting for a bomb to go off.

“Only if I can share yours, as your mum does better praise and cooking than mine.”

“True that, then sure, we can share, and Luna you can share our mums too.” She saw that Molly relaxed and a soft smile appeared on her face as she listened in, but Harry looked like he was still on edge, so she got up and went over to sit beside him.

“Hey, we’ve actually got three mums, and Karen’s great. Though I’m not sure how to feel about what to do when mum asks me if I’ve asked my mum.

“Harry, how are you doing with the fact that your aunt and Karen are together?”

“It’s good, but strange and confusing. It feel so fast, but I know it was really nearly 6 months, 2 if you only count from then. Thing is, I’ve never seen her smile as much as she does when Karen’s around. It’s as though the clouds have just separated and the sun lights up the world. When I grow up I want a relationship like that.” She smiled at the dreamy expression on his face.

“I’m sure you will. They do seem to be well matched, I didn’t even know that women could be lovers until I got back for the summer. According to my dad they’re called lesbians, and they only got some protections in law for the first time in 1967, before that their relationship was illegal. Though he said that it applied more to gay people than lesbians, but I’m not sure what being happy has to do with relationships.”

“Maybe it is something like Lesbian but not for women?”

“But I looked it up in the dictionary and it said it means happy.”

“Maybe it’s like one of those words that mean different things depending on where you are, after all charm was always something mum had on her bracelet or something you did to make them like you.”

“Could be. Why can’t everything just make sense like books do?”

“Because people aren’t books Hermione.” She says, rubbing her hand comfortingly.

“Harry, you’re supposed to be a boy, so that you get used to doing nice things as a boy.” Hermione reprimands before adding quietly,

“and so that I can have a boyfriend as well as a girlfriend when we’re older.”

“Oh, sugar.” She shift back to a boy with a conscious effort.

“As I was saying, do you think that Aityo is learning anything?” He indicates the house-elf that is nursing in the corner watching the conversation Ginny’s having curiously.

“Of course she is.”

“When I was growing up I was never able to learn from books because Dudley kept destroying them, or Vernon would give him mine after he destroyed his own. So I had to learn by listening and remembering. I couldn’t read story books so I remembered the stories I heard from the TV. What I’m trying to say is that where you’ve taught me to learn from books, I’m trying to teach you to learn without.”

“Oh, Harry, why didn’t you say so earlier. Thank you, and I’ll try.” Hermione pulled him into a rib creaking hug.

“Er, Harry. I’m really sorry about doing that when we were younger.” Dudley ventured hesitantly. Harry and Hermione became aware of the fact that everyone had stopped talking, and apart from Ron, were looking at them.

“It’s ok, look Dud, you’ve done a lot of growing up this year. I’m not sure I’m in a place where I can forgive it all yet, but that’s because I’m still dealing with it. But He did both of us over, and mum couldn’t really help more than she did.”

“I know, but, I still have nightmares ya know. Like one time when we were kids before school you levitated my toy back to me after I’d thrown it on the floor and dad hit you so hard your chest cracked. I’ve spoken to Mum’s healer Mrs Tonks, and she says it’s because I was obliviated so young, it did something to my brain, and now I can’t forget it. I can’t forget anything else either since Nixie ate those spells, but those are the worst bits. She also said that they can’t do anything with those memories until my brain has finished growing other wise it will do more damage, so I’ve got to live with it for the next ten years.”

Sliding into her base female form, tears running down her face she kneels down behind Dudley and hugs him from behind.

“I had no idea your memories were like that, I have enough bad memories for the both of us, but at least mine will fade with time.”

She became aware that Aityo was screaming in fear and trying to back through the wall while pointing at her. Ginny, Hermione, and Molly all trying to calm her down. 

Hermione shouted across the room “Harry, appearance!”

Harry looks down at herself and tries to work out what’s going on, then catches sight of her hair. Concentrating she pushes her standard girl form onto her body and sighs in relief when the fearful screams die down into distressed whimpers of “Aes sidhe”.

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

Harry lay back on her bed happy but absolutely exhausted. She’d just had the best day ever, and even managed to do some of it as a boy. They’d arranged with Madam Longbottom to have a joint birthday that started out with a celebration breakfast in the Hopping Pot where Aunt Petunia had a deal for her muggle tours business. They’d arranged to have Dan, Emma, Karen, and the Assistant that worked at the clinic provide chaperone services as there were going to be so many people going.

The breakfast had been simply Brilliant as she got to catch up with everyone, Neville had even managed to drag Ron away from his computer chess for the day. The morning had been split between a tour of the Tower of London followed by a tour of the Ministry. She wasn’t sure who Amelia had found to do the tour, but they managed to make something that could have bored them to tears and made it fun and interesting with the stories and asides. They’d even had permission to see the original Wizard’s hall where the Wizards Council used to meet before the Ministry was formed in 1707. This used to be the main entrance to the Ministry before the muggle government, it still had the original seats, banners, and benches. Though the portraits, such as they were had been moved into storage. It was absolutely amazing how the history they learnt at the Tower tied into the history they learned at the Ministry. Lunch was then in a private room at the Leaky Calderon, where Neville was the highlight of the meal. While most of the children had recognised the food, Harry, Hermione, and the other couple of muggleborns found a few of them were new. After that it was a walk up Regent Street for shopping at Hamley’s and Liberty culminating in his birthday dinner at Garfunkel’s. She couldn’t wait for the photo’s to be delivered.

It almost didn’t happen as they found out that Harry hadn’t been receiving owl mail, so none of the invite returns had been seen. It was only Daphne making a Floo call that alerted them to the problem, and they sent out a letter through the post office asking for the responses to be sent to the Weasley’s and they’d pick them up there.

A pop brought her out of her thoughts as a house-elf appeared in her room.

“Harry Potter must… Oh sorry miss, Dobby thought this was Harry Potter’s room” It then popped away again.

“Ceeley!” Harry called, and a few seconds later she popped in.

“What do you need?”

“There was another house-elf just hear looking for me, though they were looking for my male form. Could you keep an eye out and I’ll switch over.”

“Ceeley can do that.”

Harry saw the elf pop into the corner, “No need, he’s just popped back in over there.”

“You is Harry Potter?”

“I am.”

“Dobby is so happy to meet you, though Dobby thought you were the boy-who-lived.”

“Pleased to meet you too, would you mind telling me why you’re here?”

“Harry Potter must not returns to Hogwarts.”

“Why ever not?”

“There is danger there.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ceeley pop off silently and returns with Petunia and Karen.

“Well, that would be even more reason to go back, after all I’ve got friends and family going.”

“Friends that don’t even write?”

“Well, no, that’s what the Floo is for.”

This seems to stump the elf. 

Taking a cue from what Petunia was mouthing he continues before Dobby can get his thoughts together, “Can you tell me anything about this threat?”

“Dobby not allowed, Dobby will need to punish himself for coming here.”

“Were you told not to come here?” Dobby shakes his head.

“Then you’ve done nothing you need to punish yourself for. Is the threat life threatening?”

“It is, that is why the Great Harry Potter musts not go.”

“Is it a new threat?”

“It happened once before in Dobby’s life.”

“Very well, I’ll take it under advisement, though I still have to go back.”

“Harry must not go!”

“I… will need to see what my… Aunt says.” He follows the prompt that his Aunt is signalling from under the elven invisibility.

“You mentioned writing earlier, what do you know about it?”

“Dobby is sorry, Dobby took your post to stop you from wanting to return. Dobby will need to shut his hands in the oven when he gets home.” With that he took a large bundle of post out from under his tea-towel and popped away. Ceeley popped away as well.

“I’ll send a letter to McGonagall to let her know what we heard. Karen remind me to do something special for Ceeley as house-elf invisibility is really useful even if we can’t tell when they’re supposed to be invisible yet, and for doing the right thing by coming to get us.”

“Thanks mum, do you think we need to let Madam Bones know as well?”

“I can send her a note, but I don’t think there’s enough for law enforcement to go on.”

“Well done Harry, you seemed to be getting pretty stressed then, but you stayed in your girl form.” Karen added

“Oh, yeah, I did didn’t I. I hope that means that it’s getting easier to stay a boy too, though it doesn’t feel like it.”

“What do you mean? And try not to change into a boy while we’re talking.”, Karen sits down on the bed to one side of Harry while Petunia sits on the other.

“Well, when we did the Tower of London, it was really easy to start with, as there were all the weapons and armour, and Lavender and Parvati weren’t that interested, and Hermione only had her academic interest. So I spent most of my time with Neville, Dean, Ron, Anthony, and Ernest Macmillan who I met today. Then we got onto the clothing and suddenly it became hard to stay a boy as I was just as enthusiastic about the clothes as Lavender and Parvati were, and we even dragged Trace and Daphne in too. Though Sue and Hermione went off to look at the manuscripts. And the crown jewels were the hardest part, because some of that jewellery was so exquisite. I think I slipped a couple of times but I don’t think anyone noticed apart from the girls who quietly reminded me.

“The ministry tour was easy though, but I was bored to tears for the first part until the guide started adding stories and annecdotes. Maybe you should see if you can work with them Mum, as I bet there’s a lot of magicals that don’t know that much about the magical places history either.”

“I might see how that works out once you’re back at school. But don’t try to change the subject, what about the rest of the day?”

“Well after the tour we had Neville’s party in the Leaky, and that’s when I gave up as it was just too hard to stay a boy as I’m really not that interested in the stuff they were talking about. I’m just lucky that Ceeley grabbed me a change of clothes, otherwise the afternoon would have been a little awkward.

“Thank you for running the Day mum, and thank you for being there Karen, it was the best birthday I’ve ever had.”


	4. Chapter 3 - Staff Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a lot of information that could be quite boring dumped in this chapter, so feel free to skip it and come back if you see something and you're not sure where it came from.

Minerva was sitting at the head of an oval table, apart from Severus, all of the other teachers involved in the heads of houses were there as well as Rolanda and Irma. Severus had cried off due to ‘being at a delicate point in his research’. Which she read as he didn’t want to be involved in something he saw as frivolous, the same as he’d done every year since he’d become a teacher. Albus, unusually, wasn’t here either, the couple of times she’d seen him he looked harried and had deep bags under his eyes. She also hadn’t seen him with Fawkes except in his office.

Seeing that everyone had settled down, and having left a reasonable time for the other two to arrive, she began.

“Good morning everyone, thank you for coming to the pre-meeting for the 1992 school year. I’ve got a couple of notes from Amelia Bones to read out, and one from Petunia Dursley. Normally I wouldn’t bring up parent’s notes in this meeting as they’re not relevant, but as these are something to do with classes or the school I’ll read them out after our normal discussions. This year in addition to our normal teaching duties we’ve also got the new clubs to manage.

Firstly, I’d like to go over our staffing status. Is there anything anyone would like to add before I continue?”

Filius speaks up, “I know I ask this every year, but do we have any budget for a teaching assistant as I think it’s safe to say that most of us are overworked as it is.”

“No, however that brings me on to the things that I discovered about our staffing situation. According to the charter, the school board doesn’t actually exist. Now we all know that we’ve had a school board for around 300 years as the liaison between the Ministry and the school. So I did a little digging by sending a letter off to Gringotts to find out exactly who the Hogwarts accounts were paying out to. What I discovered is that they are actually employed by the school, and are listed at consultants. Since 1975 they’ve had an increase in pay of 1 or 2 galleons a meeting every year. I went back through the voting history and found that this started when the board gained a majority of members that are associated with the traditional faction. It accelerated when Malfoy and Nott were appointed to the board after the deaths of a few members during the war. As it stands they are currently paid 42G per meeting, and there are 12 members. These wage increases were approved by the headmaster, probably without even looking.

“Have any of you read the section of the charter that deals with decisions and appeals?”

Pomona speaks up, “Is that the bit where it says that all staffing decisions are solely the purview of the headmaster. But all other decisions can be overruled by a majority of the advisors, then outlines the positions that those advisors hold in the school?”

“Yes, would you be able to find the section and read out what those positions are?” She takes her copy of the Charter from the pile of papers in front of her and passes them to Pomona.

“Let’s see… right, here we are. _The council of advisors will consist of the Deputy headmaster to represent the administration of the school, The head house elf to represent the maintenance of the school, and The Heads of the four houses and their assistances to represent the students. These positions must always be filled, and no member of staff can hold more than one of these positions for longer than 10 months._

“Would you like me to find out the responsibilities of these positions?”

Bathsheba leans forward, “Yes please.”

“One moment.” It takes her a few minutes to locate the relevant text.

“Right, here we are. _The Headmaster’s primary responsibility will be to enact the will of Hogwarts, additionally he will be responsible for the hiring and firing of new teachers, though his advisors can bring suggestions to him the decision rests solely on his shoulders. The headmaster is also responsible for ensuring that teaching levels are maintained, and that the finances are maintained for the safe instruction of the students. The Headmaster is allowed to appoint a Deputy, though the student representatives can overrule him with a majority vote. The headmaster is also responsible for reporting the state of the school to the wizard council, and also providing a comparison of education for the other schools in Europe, Persia, The Egyptian Empire, and Scandinavia. Finally, the headmaster is the final arbitrator for all discipline decisions involving students, though he is unable to assign punishments himself._

_The Deputy is responsible for the smooth running of the school, he has the sole responsibility to assign the staff that will be responsible for representing the students. They are responsible for overseeing the school accounts to ensure that the monies there in are spent according to their designated purpose. In the event that the Headmaster is unable to enact the will of Hogwarts, this responsibility will fall to them._

_The Head house-elf will be responsible for all maintenance of the school and environs. As house-elves refuse to draw a wage, they will instead be given a budget of 1S per week for each elf that chooses to work here. They can use for uniforms, furnishing the sanctuary and their domiciles, and purchasing the freedom of other elves. Those elves that choose to gain an education will also be welcome to assist with other duties in the school, their 1S coming from that duty rather than the maintenance.”_

“Wait, what’s that about house elves? It sounds important.” Septima interrupts,

Minerva speaks up slowly, thinking while she’s talking, “I don’t know, I’ve not read the entirety of this cover to cover, I just checked the beginning of each section to see if it seemed to apply to us. Irma, I know you’re not usually at these meetings, I invited you to see if you would be interested in overseeing one or more of the clubs. However, could I task you with going through a copy of this and seeing what you can turn up in the Library and the actual document, as I must confess that I skipped over the house elf bit past their responsibilities, as the language in this copy is 500 years old and so is a struggle for me to read.”

“I could do that, and it might be an interesting subject for a History and Language club.” Irma responds.

“Thank you. Pomona would you be able to continue?”

“Certainly,

“ _The Caretaker is to be fulfilled by one that has no magical potential. Their responsibility is to ensure that unaccomplished students are all in their dorms before the witching hour commences. They are also to locate students that may have fallen exhausted after practicing for their accomplishment recognition, and remove them to the infirmary._

_“The Librarian will be responsible for the maintenance and updating of all three libraries, the one in the sanctuary included._

_“The Groundskeeper will be responsible for managing all three of the preserves as well as the area surrounding the Sanctuary._

“ _The Student Representatives will be heads of each house and their assistants. They will be responsible for advocating for the students under their care and representing them when punishments are escalated to the Headmaster or his deputy. They are also responsible for ensuring that all the students under their care understand correct deportment and responsibilities. They also have the power to overrule a decision by the Headmaster or his deputy, this requires a unanimous voice, or merely a majority if the deputy is also on side. After becoming aware of a decision, a Head of house may table an objection within 1 moon cycle. If this motion passes then the decision is overturned with immediate effect._

“That’s the end of the section.”

“Thank you, does anyone have any questions?” Minerva asked.

Filius spoke up, “Two things, I’d like to table the decision that we invalidate the pay increases to the school board effective immediately.”

“Very well, I’ll arrange a meeting of the Advisors and the Headmaster where we will put this and any other issue to the vote.” Minerva made a note on a sheet of parchment.

“The second thing is that I think we need to have the head house elf involved in this meeting.”

“Agreed, Greysie!”

“How may Greysie help Professor kitty?”

“We have just discovered that you have a defined position in the staff, thus deserve to be seated in this meeting. Filius if you would provide a chair please?”

“Greysie is not worthy of sitting with Professors.”

“You are, Pomona or Irma, would you read out the section on the responsibilities of the Head House-elf again please?”

Irma who was flicking through the document quickly found the place again and read it out.

Greysie seemed to start to go through an existential crisis as the news that he was actually a free elf worked.

“Greysie” Pomona got his attention.

“I know that the news must make your world view seem very different, but remember this. You were free yesterday even though you didn’t know. It hasn’t changed you, just what you know. This is still your home, you still work here, and you still have your family here. Concentrate on that for the moment and worry about the rest of it later.”

“Greysie thinks he can do that.”

“When we finish, would you be able to let the other elves know about the opportunities for education.”

“Greysie will”

“Does anyone else have any other business before we move onto the new clubs?”

Septima speaks up, “As we’ve just discovered that the board of governors and the elves were being paid, can we review all staff wages and find out if there are any other discrepancies?”

“Very well, I’ll write to the Ministry Tax department and ask them for details, would everyone be able to write down what they believe they earn and seal it. I’ll hand them back to you once I have the details at the next meeting and we can ensure the numbers match up.”

“If no one else has any business… On to the new clubs. I was thinking that we could have 3 categories, Competitive, Creative, and Other.

“To start with in competitive we could have Chess, Archery, Snooker and Debate. Filius, Bathsheba, you both had ideas for Archery and Snooker.”

“Yes, I know of a simple charm that the lower years could use before they’re able to transfigure or conjure arrows. It would enable them to shoot a coloured dot at a target within around 10-20 paces. We could have them doing speed and accuracy contests with static and moving targets. If we get a few 6th years interested, they should be able to setup an environment for the club session fairly easily with transfiguration and conjuration.” Filius explains.

Bathsheba takes over, “For the Snooker I was going to engrave a few sets of snooker balls, or get my runes students to do it for extra credit. These would glow if any spells touch them. Filius found another simple spell that can knock something over. You said it used to be used to get the attention of students didn’t you?” Filius nods.

“What we’ll be looking for in snooker is precision and control as they will only be allowed to use that charm or the banishing charm during the game. We want to prepare 3 tables to start with, and if it proves popular make more so that people don’t have to wait. It was quite a fun diversion designing those.”

“Who would like to look after the debate club?”

“I will.” Aurora volunteers.

“I’ll take chess if no one else minds?” No one spoke up.

“For the creative clubs, we currently have Arts and theatre, Photography, Creative writing, Journalism, and Cooking.

“Greysie, would you mind looking after the Cooking club?”

Greysie starts in surprise that he would be asked a question, “Greysie would be honoured to do so, but what about when students give orders?”

“One of the aspects of being free is that you never needed to take orders.” Pomona says softly

Greysie looks a little rudderless at that.

“It doesn’t have to change anything that you do. All it means is that you are allowed to say no, and people aren’t allowed to punish you for it, that includes the Headmaster.”

Greysie looks thoughtful, “So that would also mean wes not need to spy on students or take their belongings to them?”

“Yes it would, though I think that Professor Kitty wasn’t it? Would be interested in talking to you about who was asking you to do that.”

Minerva continues, “Irma, would you mind taking the Journalism and Creative Writing please?”

“Certainly, though I would like a room near the library for the clubs as I won’t be having loud conversations in the Library.”

Minerva makes a note, “Finally, Aurora, would you mind taking photography, and maybe also use it to show how to take astronomical photo’s too.”

“I was going to say no, but I’ll say yes as long as the members get a curfew pass.”

Minerva makes another note.

“Finally, Rolanda. I know we’ve already asked you to oversee the organisation of the clubs, we’ve got a History and meditation club to go in the other category for you, I believe that Irma wanted to do the history club with her research of the charter. What I was thinking was that you could use the Antechamber off the great hall as your office and noticeboards for the clubs, that way we can ask the elves to clear it out if we need it for official functions, but it’s not being wasted for the rest of the year.”

“That sounds good.”

“I’m not sure who would be good for the Arts and Theatre club, but given which ever one of you chooses to do it is likely to need to run herd on the Twins, I’ll give you until the first week of term to volunteer.”

“Last thing then, for the Creative clubs, I’d like them to have a showcase twice a year, once for Christmas and once for the last week of the year. I’d like it if the competitive clubs could have a competition at the end of the year to show who is currently best, with the point awards that I mentioned at the leaving.”

“Any questions?... No? Very well, let’s go and get some lunch and we can cover any topics of interest this afternoon.”


	5. Chapter 4

_Due to the number of loudmouths and braggarts that we have come across, in order to maintain teaching standards, all new staff must be tested on appointment to ensure that they have a sufficient mastery of their subject needed to teach the students that will be under their care. They also need to have the aptitude needed to impart that knowledge at the level required for their audience._

* * *

Harry and Dudley found themselves spending nearly all of their time at the Weasleys as their mum’s time was constantly take up with her Muggle Tours. Apparently, Susan had given such a glowing review of everything she’d learnt while she was at Harry and Neville’s party that Amelia had signed up for the 1 week course. On the second day she’d signed up another two Aurors including one that was horribly scarred. She’d taken one look at him and told him that he’d either need to lose the peg leg or he’d need to see a specialist to have a muggle prosthetic fitted otherwise she wouldn’t take him out of the house. Before she knew it the week was over and she was fully booked with 10 Aurors a week 5 in the mornings and 5 in the afternoons, though fortunately the evenings were still free.

It had been fine to start with, but now Dudley and Ginny were both complaining about not being able to play on his console. The look on Molly’s face when Ginny first complained about that was so funny that Harry had actually lost control over his/her form and ended up writhing on the floor trying to laugh and prevent herself from switching to a boy. Though when Luna was around their trio was insatiable in their curiosity of the world both magical and muggle. All three of them spent many an afternoon at Karen’s library grilling her about various subjects and exploring the books there. Harry and Petunia were quite frankly surprised at just how much Dudley had changed since Christmas, though Karen just assured them that it was just down to his new friends and the personal tutoring that he’d had to bring his academic work up to scratch before he’d become disillusioned with school.

Fortunately for Harry, she and Hermione were allowed to visit Lavender and Parvati as long as she stayed a girl, which wasn’t really a problem given the company. 

One evening when Hermione was having a sleepover, she’d even managed to hug Hermione as a boy while she cried about the fact that her parents weren’t interested in exploring the dream. Add to that they’d started working more now that they’d worked out how to use magic in their cosmetic and reconstructive business. She said it was like she was 8 again when she felt like she spent more time with babysitters than her parents. That evening of vulnerability showed her more about her best friends, and brought them even closer than they had been.

Their efforts in delving the dream had born fruit as Petunia and Karen had confirmed that they were good enough to do it on their own without needing to worry about losing control. Petunia had also rated Lavender and Parvati’s control and said that it was acceptable for starting to delve under supervision.

Tomorrow was when they were due to leave for School, and they’d not seen any sign of Dobby. They still didn’t know where he came from as he’d taken a circuitous route away from Harry’s room, and Ceeley lost him. However, Hermione, Ginny and their family were all ready to go due to the travel trunks that Petunia had insisted they buy. It would be a simple matter of just collapsing the whole thing into itself and then activating the shrinking function on the suitcase. She giggled as she recalled the argument that Ginny had with her mum leading to her staying in the spare room of Harry’s suite. It had to do with Molly’s desire to have Ginny help get the boys up in time for the train tomorrow without also making them pack today. Apparently it culminated with showing just how fast Ginny could be packed, and when Ron inserted his foot in his mouth by saying that it was even more reason why she should help them get up and pack she said that she was going to stay at Dudley’s. Apparently, she left while her Mum was having a go at Ron about how if Dudley could help around the house so could he. Mum had still been on the Floo for half an hour, then had Molly over for Dinner and tea after persuading her to leave the men to fend for themselves if they were going to be like that.

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Harry’s household were all up early and Floo’d to the Leaky Cauldron for breakfast and to meet up with everyone else that was going with them. The Granger’s and Lovegood’s had joined them by the time they were due to leave, as well as a couple of other families that they didn’t know. They then shrunk any luggage that wasn’t already shrunk and Petunia handed out muggle tours wrist bands for everyone’s wand, before they took a leisurely half hour walk to the station, and Petunia gave them a mini tour of the places they were passing. This meant that for most of them they didn’t realise just how far they’d walked. 

Once they arrived Harry was surprised when Petunia greeted one of the passengers waiting on platform 10.

“Hi Henry, I seen they’ve got you on plain clothes.”

“Oh, hey Petunia, it feels odd to refer to everyone by first name.”

“You get used to it, I’m still getting used to the last name thing. Anyway, these are my kids Harry and Dudley.”

Henry masked his surprise well when he saw Harry, “Pleased to meet you, your mother has made my job so much easier by giving the 1-week course before the in-depth tours of london. I thought I was prepared for plain clothes duty when I got an O in my muggle studies Newt a few years ago, but I learnt more in one week with her than I did in 5 years at Hogwarts. Anyway, you’re not here to listen to me prattle on, the barrier’s over there, just head on through and you’re home free.”

As Harry was trying to go through with Hermione he saw/felt/sensed something change with the barrier, and walked nose first into a brick wall, compounded with Hermione colliding with his back before he could recover. A pained exclaimation and a moment of concentration later his nose was fixed, and Petunia was dabbing at the blood with a hanky while fussing over him. Henry stood up from his chair and came over to see what happened.

“Petunia, would you be able to keep hold of Nixie while I have a look at this?”

Once he sees that Petunia, and strangely the bushy haired girl [Hermione] are holding onto their pets, he efficiently sets up a mild muggle repelling charm and runs some diagnostics on the barrier.

“Ah, it looks like the barrier has just de-activated early. One mo, I’ll sent a message to Dawlish on the other side and we’ll have it repaired in a jiffy.”

As soon as the message was sent, Hermione took the opportunity to ask a question she just couldn’t hold onto anymore.

“Excuse me Henry, but wouldn’t it be more discrete if you just had a runic item you could charge and place down?”

“Ah, miss?”

“Oh, sorry I’m Hermione Granger.”

“Well Hermione, the issue with runic things is that they can only project their magic onto something that they are attached to in a way that makes them part of that item. So it would work fine if we engraved it in the wall or floors, but this area sees so much traffic that it would be damaged beyond repair. There’s a couple of other things you can do with runes, which if you do NEWT level runes you’ll find out. But ya won’t even start on practical applications until your OWL year as there’s so much theory to learn first. And you can’t even start on that until you’re third year as you need the theory from your first two years in order to understand what you’re learning.

“Suffice to say, if it’s portable then it can only generally affect itself.”

A moment later the portal reactivated, and Dawlish popped through quickly and then walked back. Henry then stayed by the portal reading a news paper while people filed through just in case the portal failed again, returning to his seat once the backed-up queue had finished.

Dudley, Ginny and Luna all went to find a compartment, and maybe a few other first years, while Harry and Hermione quickly checked to see if any of the chatting circle had turned up yet, and seeing as they hadn’t reserved 3 compartments next to each other for them through the simple expedience of writing chatting circle on a piece of parchment and using a sticking charm.

Harry decided to take that one step further and stuck a piece of parchment on the outside of the Carriage closest to the entrance that read First years, then reserved 5 compartments for them using the same technique as he did for the chatting circle. He only had to ask one group of students nicely if they would mind moving to another compartment so that the first years would have a chance to make friends before they arrived, which they did without complaint after he’d explained himself.

He returned to their compartment and found that Daphne had arrived and was being consoled by Hermione. She automatically melted into her girl form and joined in. It turns out that it was her mother that allowed her to come to Harry’s party. Daphne’s father was a staunch Traditionalist, the only reason he hadn’t joined the Death Eaters was their tactics not their beliefs. After making a promise to take her to London at Christmas and help her replace the things that were destroyed, she just needed to get her Mother’s permission.

The rest of the compartments filled up quickly and the journey would end up with people liberally moving between compartments. Just as they heard the final whistle, followed by the engine building up steam they saw the Weasleys running for the train, Fay opened a window and started cheering them on, which was heard in the next carriage and someone else popped their heads out, within moments the whole train seemed to be cheering them on as they raced to get their luggage on board before the train left. None of them stopped to help Ron who was struggling with his trunk as it had tipped off the trolly in his rush, and by the time Molly noticed the train was already moving. Just as the train moved out of sight, they saw a dejected looking Ron being hugged by his mother.

When everyone sat down again, Hermione snuggled into Harry’s side and whispered her thanks for helping console Daphne with her. She didn’t know why, but having her snuggle in felt nice.

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Once they arrived at Hogwarts they saw that nearly all the first years got out of the carriage that Harry had labelled, and were laughing and talking together. Harry and the older years took carriages drawn by Thestrals to the main gates and were seated before McGonagall arrived. They found Ron already at the table with his chess set out, looking much happier than he did when he was on the platform. Apparently he’d played 3 games against McGonagall and lost, and was now working on a puzzle that she’d set him.

The sorting had 4 standout moments to it, before the sorting hat started it’s song it snarked at the head table asking if there were going to be any new prophecies this year. When there was no answer it sung a song about returning to the roots of the school. An enthusiastic young boy by the name of Colin Creevey took a photo of the Gryffindor table and then looked disappointed when he couldn’t find someone he appeared to be looking for. Ginny was the first Weasley in 300 years to be sorted into Ravenclaw along with Dudley and Luna. And then a small nervous looking girl by the name of Nicole Moody was sorted into Slytherin, and rather than claps and cheers there was dead silence, and some of the older years had absolutely murderous looks on their faces at that table.

After the sorting completed, Albus stood to say a few words. As he did so Professor McGonagall handed him a sheaf of parchment with different announcements on them. Forgetting that he’d already cast his wordless sonorus to be heard clearly across the hall he whispered to her.

“I can’t read all of this out, it will take too long and they want to eat.”

“We usually do these announcements at the end of the feast.”

“What’s this, new punishments?”

“You can’t ask me to read these out.”

“Fine, you read them out then.”

He turned back to the waiting students, coughed once or twice and applied the sonorus.

“Good evening students, welcome to the 1992 school year. It is good to see so many new faces here this evening. Before we begin I have a few announcements to make, and then I’ll be handing you over to Deputy Headmistress McGonagall who has a more extensive set of announcements that she believes can’t wait until the end of the feast.

“Firstly, I’d like to introduce your new Defence of the Dark Arts instructor, Gilderoy Lockhart. Author of the best selling series, Monster hunting and Me. We also have some minor staffing changes, each head of house now has an assistant that will be available whenever they’re not. Gryffindor house, your Head of house has relinquished her position in favour of Professor Bathsheba Babbling who a few of you will know from your Ancient Runes class. She will still be around the house as the Assistant while Professor Babbling gets used to her new responsibilities. 

“Madam Hooch, who most of you know as the flying instructor will now be the teacher overseeing the new clubs that are starting this year, as well as coaching the new school quidditch teams. I am also pleased to announce that we have found the funds needed to replace the school training brooms. I understand there may be a flying club starting this year, if there is you may find me joining in.

“I will now hand you over to the Deputy Headmistress for the rest of the announcements.”

“Good evening students, I will try to be quick as I am aware that you are all hungry. 

“As the headmaster said there are a whole host of new clubs starting this year, most of the teachers and some of the ancillary staff have generously volunteered some of their time each week in order to supervise these clubs. I will briefly touch on the 4 competitive and 4 creative clubs that we have currently lined up.

“The competitive clubs will each have an end of year tournament where the students will compete to get the highest scores, these will be split into 3 tiers with one exception which I will cover with that club. 3rd year and under, 4th and 5th year, and NEWT Students. As you may remember from the end of last year, the first four places will earn their house 40, 30, 20, or 10 points.

“You will have the option of Wizard Chess, Archery, and a Wizarding adaption on a muggle game called snooker. Of these chess will test your ability to plan and strategize, Archery will test your ability to cast quickly and accurately, and Snooker will test your ability to control the output and precision of your spells. The last competitive club will be the debate club, this will test your ability to convey facts and persuade your audience. It is also the only non-magical competitive club. The end of year competition will be split into owl level and above, and 4th year and below. At the beginning of the tournament the sorting hat has agreed to sort everyone into a random team, the winning team by vote will win their houses 20 points each.

“We now come to the creative clubs, replacing Pranking is the Arts and Theatre club, anyone caught pranking outside permitted circumstances will be barred from all clubs for a period of 2 weeks and restricted to their dorm room when they’re not in class.” The cheers from most of the school drowned out the loud groans and complaints from the Weasley Twins.

“The other creative clubs are Photography, Cooking, Journalism, and creative writing. These clubs will be expected to provide a demonstration of their talents at Christmas and during the last week of the school year. Finally, we have two clubs that don’t fall under either of those two categories. There is a student run meditation club, and the Librarian Madam Pince is running a History club, this years subject is the School Charter and it’s meaning.

“With the good news out of the way, we move on to the punishments. Given the new time responsibilities that the clubs are putting on the staff, Professor Binns has graciously volunteered to monitor all detentions. They will now run on a Friday evening every week, and will consist of a 1 hour lecture on a subject of his choice that is not part of the curriculum, at the end of the lecture you will be required to score at least an acceptable on a 10 minute test of the lecture. If a detention is insufficient, you will lose your out of class wand privileges for 1 week, and be barred from attending any clubs. To enforce this you will be given one of these wrist bands and required to store your wand in them. At each class the teacher will ensure that the wrist band is still intact and then break it to release your wand for the class. You will be given a new band at the end of the class. While the current bands do read muggle tours, we will be receiving sets of coloured bands later in the year that have the Hogwarts coat of arms on them. If this doesn’t prove to be sufficient, you will be confined to your dorm room when you’re not in class for 1 week. For those that have individual rooms you will be allowed into your common room for 1 hour after dinner. The house elves have kindly agreed to provide escort and food services for this punishment. I hope that I never have to give this punishment to one of you. There are the two existing punishments of suspension and expulsion for those that continue to escalate things.

“That is the end of my announcements, so I hand you back to the Headmaster.”

“Thank you for providing those announcements, now a few words before we eat. Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak.” As he swept his hand across the room absolutely nothing happened. Repeating himself had the same effect. 

Finally he said, “House elves, would you please serve the food for tonight.”

Suddenly the tables were groaning with food, and not just the fare that existing students were used to, there was also fresh trout, steamed vegetables, salads, and other seasonal fare.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Bob49 for giving Lockharts first class a once over before I published this.

_In the event that an unsuitable teacher is brought in for teaching, any supplies requested that are not approved by a suitable substitute must be refunded out of the wages of all those that approved the professor. This is to prevent cases of nepotism poisoning the image of the school._

* * *

The first breakfast of the year brought a surprise for those in the third year and above, as McGonagall received an owl from the DoE.

“Good morning everyone, I need your attention for a short moment… This pertains to all of you that are taking Muggle Studies. Due to recent experiences by the examiners and the Professor in charge of the course, the course has been widened to Cultural Studies, instead of just Muggle Studies. There will now be 2 days of guest lectures, one will be by the Goblin Nation, the other will be by someone that grew up in the Muggle World and has first-hand experience in navigating it. The letter doesn’t have the details of just who will be doing either lecture, however they do say that they have reached out to people that would be qualified to teach about these two cultures. They will also be recommending books that we will evaluate and pick a one from each list that will be required reading through out the year.

“Some of you will also find that you have an additional class on your time table this year, these are additional lessons to teach you how to learn as we the teachers have noticed that you have some issues with learning for one reason or another. Ron Weasley, while you are in this class despite the progress you made last year, would you be able to stand up and tell us about books you received last year and how they’ve helped you?”

Ron turns absolutely scarlet, in embarrassment as he stands up shakily. One of the prefects hits him with a Soronous charm as he starts to speak.

“Oh Merlin. Erm, well pretty much everyone in my year know that I am really good at chess, though Professor McGonagall told me I was passable yesterday. Anyway, Hermione gave me a load of books that explained things that we use in class in terms of chess. When I started reading them it was like everything started to make sense and work became much easier. I still struggle, and stuff, but I at least know what’s going on now, even if Hermione’s 5 minute examples do take upwards of half an hour.” Hermione tries to look affronted while grinning from ear to ear, and blushing from embarrassment at the sudden attention.

“Thank you, Mr Weasley. Now would Cederic Diggle and Oliver Wood please stand up... Cederic has been chosen to be the captain of the schools A team, we feel that while he might not be as strong a player as Wood, he has better leadership abilities and teamwork. Oliver Wood has been chosen as we didn’t see a single foul in the Gryffindor games last year, while Slytherin were awarded multiple fouls, thus out second choice of Marcus Flint was ruled out. Oliver has been chosen due to his absolute devotion to the game and almost reckless disregard of his own safety in play. It is our hope that by playing against each they can sand off the rough edges and bring out in each other the best captaincy possible. While the Hufflepuff captaincy won’t be changing this year, Wood I must ask that you hand over your Gryffindors captain badge to Angelina Johnson.

“Please enjoy the rest of your breakfast, your head of house will be handing out your timetables. First years, we have house-elf volunteers to guide you to your classes for the next two weeks, please treat them the way you would like to be treated as they are giving up their own time to do this for you.”

With that the year was underway, and everyone got quickly got into the swing of things. Neville was in the special needs class due to his memory problems along with Ron, there were also a few of the older years too. Neville also told them that Crabbe and Goyle were both in the group. The meditation club was a success, and attracted some of their friends from other houses like Greengrass and Davis from Slytherin, Bones and Abbot from Hufflepuff, and Ginny, Luna and Dudley from Ravenclaw.

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Harry followed Hermione into the DADA classroom. Where last year it stank of garlic and had educational pictures as well as common wards against vampires around the room. This year it looked like one of those homes that an interior decorator has done up and the owner hasn’t used since. The exception is the framed cover photos from all of the magazines that Lockhart had appeared on, as well as a couple of paintings and a full size portrait behind the desk. The desks and chairs looked to be plush benches with green leather upholstery and a golden wax on the bench. Hermione looked at the seating and carefully took Chirpy out from under her hair and put him on one of the desks. Which promptly turned back into one of the desks that were there last year. Everyone that was seated promptly stood up and watched warily as a bench became narrower and the plush back disappeared revealing the lightly padded benches that were there last year. Those that could see Chirpy followed his movements around the room, the rest of them followed his snacking as the desks and tables turned back to normal. Even the teachers desk and throne turned into a plain desk and wooden chair. They were all seated when Hermione noticed that Chirpy was sniffing at the teachers door. As she went to stand up and retrieve him, the door opened and the most interesting introduction to a teacher ever happened, as Lockhart walked out dressed in military finery, with medals adorning his chest, and ended up sitting down wearing pyjamas, his hair limp and the trademark smile missing. Disappointingly he didn’t even seem to notice as all of this happened, or that the whole class was trying very hard not to laugh. Hermione discretely slipped the 7 books, that she’d memorised and lovingly gone over the details for, back into her book bag and decided that if he couldn’t even tell that his spells were being undone he probably the books were probably a fictionalised account of stuff someone else did.

“Good morning class. I the great Gilderoy Lockhart am your DADA teacher for the year. We are first going to ensure that you’ve read up on the books that I assigned as reading. To do this I have a pop quiz in the… Drawer… on… MY DESK! MY QUIZ!”

With wild eyes he looks around as all the work that he put into making the room look plush and ostentatious had been undone. Mounting horror appeared on his face as he came to an inevitable conclusion, “Which of you cast finite on everything in here?”

Hermione put her hand up “Excuse me professor, but what’s finite?”

“What do you mean what’s finite? Everyone knows what finite is!”

“I’m sorry Professor, but I’m muggle raised, so I actually don’t know.”

“Oh. Right then. Erm, moving on.”

“I do have one question before we move on. Are you demonstrating the standard of dress that you expect in your class?”

“Well, you don’t need anything as fancy as this.” He pushes his hand forward and tugs the sleeve of his pajamas before freezing in disbelief again, this time he recovered well.

“As, you can see I only use the best fabrics for my clothes. So, no, I will expect you to turn up in your school uniforms. Now I was going to save this till later, but you can work on this while I’m repairing my wardrobe malfunction. I present you freshly caught Cornish pixies. Now these creatures have been known to cause great distress to the unwary wizard. You have until I come back to corral the pixies back into their cage.” As he whipped the cover off of the cage and opened the door before retreating to his room, Hermione noticed that the people sitting near Lavender were moving further and further away from her. She looked over and saw that her hair was going from one complicated pattern to another as her hands were pale with the pressure she was exerting on the book in her hands. She carefully released some of her control over her magic just in case things went bad and she felt Harry do the same next to her. The pixies that had been flying out of the cage ready to cause some trouble felt the power in the room become suffocating as Neville, Fay, Melissa and Parvati all released the control over their magic. In response they tipped the table and their cage over and then flew back into the cage behind the table.

Draco was the one to break the tense silence when he spoke up, “What’s going on? Why is everyone looking at Lavender as though she’s about to start throwing Exploding Charms around?”

With that Lavender screamed and the book she was holding turned into so much confetti, her long hair floating around like snakes reacting to her magic she turns eyes glowing with power on Draco, “Do you know how much money my family had to spend on these books? 7 books at 2G each, that’s 14G just for one subject. That was half of my fathers wages for a week for what? A teacher that doesn’t even notice when the room that he spent so much effort on is back to normal? That his clothes have been dispelled? Who wears conjured medals? I know that you’re a honey bear, but the rest of the world works for a living.”

“Well if your family is too poor to afford a few books, why are you even here?”

With an inarticulate scream of rage Draco went flying backwards onto a wall and stuck against the wall in a crucified position, Duct Tape across his mouth.

“That feels so much better, I can understand why Hermione does it when we try to wake her up now.”

Her hair and eyes return to normal and it plats itself into it’s normal look as she looked down at what happened to the book and starts crying.

“Dad’s going to kill me, there’s no way that this can be repaired.”

Hermione calls across the room, “It’s ok, we can talk to Professor McGonagall and complain about the lesson. I think there’s a provision for receiving a refund on supplies requested by an incompetent teacher if their substitute replacement deems them inappropriate.” An audible sigh moves through some of the other students who are in a similar position to Lavender, but didn’t want to speak up.

At this point Lockhart walks back in, “Ah, well done. I see they managed to cause some chaos while I was gone. It’s a pity about the book, but I’m sure that your family can buy you a replacement.”

Parvati quickly hugs Lavender and starts whispering to her urgently, and the tension slowly leaves Lavender.

Lockhart continues with, “Well, as there’s only 10 minutes of the class left, I’ll let you go and I’ll have young Malfoy down in a jiffy.”

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Lavender and Hermione both lead the charge as the storm off to the transfiguration classroom where Professor McGonagall should be finishing. Hermione opened the conversation with a question.

“Professor, did you tell Professor Lockhart about my familiar before our lesson?”

“Not specifically, though he was in the meeting where I reminded everyone about it, and to take care when demonstrating spells that you have it in hand so that he doesn’t eat the demonstration.”

“Oh, good. In that case we need to complain about _Professor_ Lockhart.” She indicates the rest of the students behind her.

Over the next 20 minutes they describe what happened between all of them, and McGonagall takes a moment to think.

“Very well, this will probably take a few months to resolve, as I need to do random interviews with other classes and your own to see if this was an anomalous class. Once that’s done I need to have someone audit the lessons, and only then can I bring a formal complaint. You maybe interested to know that the is a clause for the case where an incompetent professor is hired where the staff that approved their hire have to refund all purchases that a competent substitute deems irrelevant to the subject. So I’m glad that you were able to see past his charm so quickly, but there’s only so fast I can do things and get the right results. Well off you go, you still have classes to attend to.”

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Albus leaned over his desk putting his signature on document after document. The writing blurred and his thoughts sluggish. His eyes drooped closed as he felt himself nod off. Jerking awake he started as he saw the black man sitting in the visitor chair in front of him. Fawkes was nowhere to be seen.

“You have a very strong mind and will for a mortal.”

“You can’t be here, you said you couldn’t come to earth!”

“Oh, but we’re not on earth, we’re in your dreams. Would it help if we weren’t in your office?” As he spoke the room turned into a cosy sitting room with a roaring fire and plush red leather armchairs, that they were both sitting in.

“There, is that better?”

Albus desperately tried to wake himself up using all of the mental tricks he’d learns over his lifetime.

“Oh, well done, valiant effort, I think you just scored an EE. For that I will reward you with my name. When ever you want to refer to me, just speak my name and I will come to your summons. I am Nyarlathotep, feel free to take my name in vain, I do so love being able to visit earth. Next time you summon me I will either take your soul or grant you knowledge and a task, ensure that you have a suitable sacrifice if you wish the latter. I’ll leave you to your dreams.”

Albus felt the name burn itself into the deepest recesses of his mind where not even the most skilled Obliviator would be able to dislodge it. He then drifted into the first natural sleep that he’d been allowed for 2 weeks.


	7. Chapter 6

Over the next few weeks Harry and Hermione joined a couple of other clubs each. Harry joined the Cooking and a flying club that started after the 1st year flying lessons. Hermione joined the Snooker club to Harry’s surprise; she also joined the history club. To the 2nd year Slytherin and Gryffindor classes, DADA went from disappointing to farcical with the absence of the Glitz and Glamour that Lockhart used in his other classes. When they compared notes with the girls in the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw class, they apparently missed out on a brilliant quiz about the content of his books, they were also all asked to perform dramatic demonstrations of various moves that he’d used on his foes, and the encounter with the Cornish Pixies had turned out very differently. 

This lead to her asking Professor McGonagall if it would be ok if some of the other students could look after her familiar occasionally to relieve the workload on Flitwick and herself when they were planning some of the demonstrations they needed. McGonagall ok’d this only after she demonstrated that Chirpy could be trusted with another student. Which she demonstrated by leaving him with Luna for a day, after handing him over publicly at breakfast, and informing Professor McGonagall of this, who said that she’d let the other teachers know. Flitwick and Sprout later received a raft of complaints from the first year DADA class because their chairs disappeared, and they didn’t actually learn anything in the lessons.

Harry, Lavender, Parvati, Fay, and Melissa threw a small party for Hermione on her birthday and gave her a few gifts.

Hagrid was persuaded to restart the Friday Fireside Story Time, and it was as big a hit as it was the previous year. So, it was added as an official club called Friday Fireside Fables, and was the first open club that had free attendance.

In Charms they moved onto three motion spells, which proved challenging as you had to get the joining actions correct otherwise the spell just didn’t work. They also delved deeper into the purpose behind wand movements, and how they aided the focus of the witch or wizard. In transfiguration they started to learn about how the inherent magic in living creatures resisted transfiguration, and as such living to inanimate transfigurations were never permanent. To demonstrate this McGonagall transfigured a Beetle into a button to show what the class would be doing, and then placed the button into a conjured jar that she left on her desk in clear view of the class. This led to the revelation that they wouldn’t be studying living to living transfiguration until 4th year due to its potentially permanent nature. Instead they would be going over larger and thus more magical living to inanimate transfigurations and how the differing levels of magic needed different approaches in order to succeed.

While she was doing better at spending time in both genders, Harry still tended to do things where she was expecting things to go wrong as a boy and defaulted to being a girl for everything else.

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Towards the end of September Harry and Hermione approached Professor McGonagall with Madam Hooch.

“Deputy Headmistress.” McGonagall immediately straightened as Harry addressed her with that title.

He continued, “We would like to start a new Meditation class, that is allowed to run during the witching hour for intermediate Meditation. Madam Hooch felt that she didn’t know enough to make the decision either way.”

“Ok, there must be more to it than that, otherwise you wouldn’t all be here. Madam Hooch, why don’t you start.”

“Well professor, I have two issues with what they’re asking for, the first being that they want to do it after curfew, and the second being that they want Filch to be the staff sponsor.”

“Well, those are certainly compelling reasons to deny this straight off the bat, so why do you think I should allow this?”

“Harry and I have been practicing meditation over the holidays at night under the supervision of his Aunt and Karen, additionally Dudley, Ginny and Luna in first year have been doing this too. Where we differ from them is that we have also been travelling into what we know as The Dream. We want to be able to continue to practice this here, and I persuaded him that it would be better to ask for official sanction rather than do it in the dorm room and potentially get caught, or have something go wrong.” She glances at Harry to double check which body he was using as she spoke.

She then continued, “We then sat down and decided that we’d like to have a club that allows people to move up to our level, but we realised that there needed to be a middle step. So, I outlined a guideline for how a person can graduate from the basic club to each different level.” She pulls out a couple of sheets of parchment and hands one to McGonagall and one to Hooch.

“From our observations.”

“Hermione’s observations she means.” Harry interrupts.

Hermione sticks her tongue out at Harry before continuing and sees his hair flash red as he laughs before returning to its unruly black.

“As I was saying before I was so _rudely_ interrupted, someone that’s joined the meditation club will be encouraged to move up to the intermediate club when they start to show signs of uncontrolled magic. We’ve noticed that the effects range from personal to things happening for you when you’re not thinking about it depending on how strong you are. For example, when it started happening to Harry and myself, as well as our guardians it showed itself as things doing themselves for us, such as the tea making itself, or books and stationary coming to hand when we wanted it. For Lavender who is much weaker than we are magically it started with her hair automatically styling itself, Parvati’s was less obvious but she never had to root around in her bag or drawers for anything. I haven’t spent enough time around Fay, Melissa, or Neville to work out what their displays are, but I can tell they’re there.

“In this club we would be trying to sit through the witching hour without losing control. Petunia wouldn’t let Harry or I attempt this step until she was damn sure we could clamp our magic down at a moments notice. But neither Harry or I have learnt how to sense magic to her level yet, so that’s not an option for us. Instead, what we’d like to do is have Filch watch over us, and if anyone looks to be fading out he will knock them out. Also as part of the intermediate class, they would have to separate their magic from their emotions, so that we don’t end up with students accidentally hurting other students because they were having an off moment, like happened with Draco at the beginning of the year.

“To qualify for the advanced class, they will need to be able to hold a conversation for the entire hour. In the advanced class we envisage that we would act as the supervisors and would be there to warn people to slow down or back out if they’re going too fast, as we can’t chase after anyone if they lose control. What we’ve noticed is that the less control you exhibit the faster you fall deeper into the dream, and the harder it is to regain control. Given how fast Karen said that she returned to Earth when she saved Ginny, I think that we can get to the point where we can eventually move between worlds as easily as walking through a room. If that’s the case, I would suggest that we hand out a certificate of completion when people reach that level, and they can then act as instructors in the future.”

There was a long silence as McGonagall thought about what she’d heard.

“Much as I want to, I’m not going to say no to this now. However, it seems to me that the control could be gained in the standard class. So, we would require a parental permission slip for undertaking a potentially dangerous club. Much like we would if we were to ever start an alchemy or spell research class. To get that permission you’re going to need a pretty compelling argument as to why they should allow their children, some of whom are the heirs to old and prestigious families, to take this risk.”

“Harry, do you think your Aunt could get the Goblins to outline some of the benefits that they’ve found since they started delving in her rented room?”

“What do you mean the goblins started delving in her rented room?”

Harry speaks up, “Apparently because my Aunt is magical, but legally not a witch, nor can she become one, their treaties don’t prevent them from approaching her for business. While if she was a witch or wizard they’d have to go through the Ministry. This meant that they could rent a room in our house, and they’ve been using that to learn to delve as well as explore the worlds in the dream. Given how happy they are I think they’ve found some really good things there. I think they also approached Hermione’s parents about a similar deal, what happened with that?”

Hermione replied, “They found that the area was too dangerous for first timers so they said that they’d revisit it in a year or two.”

With a thoughtful look on her face McGonagall responds, “That’s interesting and useful to know. Do you know if Petunia would be willing to pass a couple of messages on for us as we need to arrange for guest lectures and if possible we’d like to do something like her Muggle Tours with them too.”

Harry looked at Hermione for reassurance before he responded, “I don’t know, I think your best bet would be to Floo her and ask. Or leave a message at the Hopping Pot.”

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A pattern emerged amongst the students about who would be looking after Chirpy when Flitwick or McGonagall asked Hermione to pass him off for a day at breakfast. It became clear that there was a young girl in Slytherin that always wanted him around. Professor Vector brought the matter to the Deputy’s attention after Professor Snape kept countermanding her punishments.

“Professor McGonagall, I need to protest about the Head of Slytherin house.”

“What’s the matter Septima, and is this a problem that will go better with a dram or two of whiskey?”

“I won’t say no to a glass if you’re offering Minerva.”

Minerva poured them both a glass of fire whiskey, and then sat back.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“You know we have Nicole Moody in the first year Slytherins?”

“The name seems vaguely familiar, but no I wasn’t aware of that.”

“Well, I’ve spoken to the girl and she has no direct relationship with the Auror Moody, I think he’s something like her 2nd cousin once removed. Anyway, there are a few students in there that have been taking their families frustration with the Auror out on her, nothing physically harmful, just debilitating for a first year that can’t counter any spells yet. They’ve also been targeting any of the other first years that she tries to make friends with.”

“I assume that you’ve tried to punish them for this?”

“I have, but as I wasn’t actually there when it happened, though Nicole said that Snape was for a few occasions. Professor Snape has been countermanding the punishments that I’ve been handing out due to lack of proof.”

“Very well, does she have any friends at the moment?”

“Yes, she’s in the photography and journalism clubs and she seems to have made friends with one of your Gryffindors. She’s close enough that he’s letting her see his journal, and even writing in it together.”

“That’s good, you may also want to suggest that she joins the FFF and the meditation club. As well as sitting in the evening chatting circle. I know they’re not exactly year mates, but I know that there’s three 1st year Ravenclaws in the Meditation club.”

“In the mean time I’ll ask if one of the house-elves would be willing to follow her around discretely over the next week, and take down the names of everyone they see bullying her.”


	8. Chapter 7

_We cannot state enough how important it is to have either someone that is completely non-magical or a master of the art of walking the dream to hand when you are first trying to learn to crawl. They are the only people that will be able to prevent you from falling to your death should your concentration waver. It is far better to wake with a lump on your head than never wake again._

_Excerpt from a manual on learning to walk by the arch druid, 438 AD translated by Madam Pince._

* * *

It was only a few days after her meetings that McGonagall was able to give permission to the Meditation group to start the intermediate club. Filch had shown an inordinately large smile when she handed him an enchanted morning star that Bathsheba had made. It had an engraved leather striking ball that would use a variant of the stunning spell to render the person it hit unconscious. The ball itself was filled with loosely packed wool so that it couldn’t harm the student. It was attached to the stick by a woven leather braid so that Filch didn’t need to worry about accidentally hitting himself. He also insisted that everyone that joined the club had to experience the club and the effects of waking up from it naturally, which Bathsheba had said would result in a monster of a headache. Secondly, she’d received the proof she needed of the bullying in the Slytherin dorms. Once she saw that everyone was in the hall for dinner, she used her wand to let off a high-pitched whistle, it was only a shame that Albus wasn’t here, but he’d holed himself up in the restricted section of the library since the beginning of term. Once all the conversation had died down, she stood up.

“Thank you for your attention, I have two things I need to address this evening. First is that the Meditation club now has an intermediate level for those that wish to progress, this will take place at solar midnight every Friday. Filch is the supervising staff member for this club.” Gasps of surprise ripple across the hall as she indicates the caretaker.

“Due to the risks associated with this new level of the club students wishing to join need to have parental permission. Would the following students come up to the head table please? Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Padma Patil, Ginevra Weasley, Dudley Dursley, Luna Lovegood, and Daphne Greengrass.” They all file up to the teachers table, though Padma had a confused expression on her face.

“Here are your completed permission slips, Padma I know that you aren’t a member of the meditation club, but your father included permission for you anyway so if you do join you’ll be able to progress when you’re ready, you’ll need to show this to Filch in order to participate. For everyone else in the club, I either haven’t received a response, or your parents denied permission. You may come to see me later if you wish to know which. The club has been assigned a room just outside the Infirmary. Please return to your seats.”

Confused murmuring spread around the hall as students tried to work out just what was so dangerous about meditation. However, Lockhart’s years pricked up, this was something he could gain some glory for, he just needed to take some time to find out what he could.

“The second thing that needs to be addressed is a matter of punishment. The following students must come up to the head table, and bring your wands. Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Robert McKnight, Joseph Beltran, Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey.” She waited while they either came up to the table voluntarily or were fetched by one of the teachers, Professor Snape looked absolutely livid once the list of names was read out.

“All of you have been caught bullying one of your housemates. As this has been a sustained problem, we are skipping the detention. Instead you are currently banned from all clubs and have had your wand privileges removed. You can either wear one of these bands and voluntarily surrender your wands as I said you’d need to do at the beginning of the year, or you can surrender your wands to me and you will need to ask each teacher to retrieve your wand when it’s required. Professor Vector will inspect your bands every morning and every evening at curfew, if they are not intact then you will immediately be confined to your dorms for all non-class times, with the exception of an hour during the evenings. Do I make myself clear?”

The students stood there in sullen silence.

“I said. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Professor McGonagall”, “Yes, Deputy Headmistress.” They all muttered.

Draco added softly, “My father will hear about this.”

“I know he will, as I’ve already sent him an owl, including details of what you did to earn this punishment.”, Draco blanched at that news.

Once they had all accepted the wrist bands and stored their wands McGonagall continued.

“In addition to this, Professor Snape has lost his position as head of house, instead he is now the assistant to Professor Vector.”

“You can’t do this, I am the head of Slytherin and I was appointed as such by the Headmaster.”

“Oh do sit down Snape, if you had bothered attending any of the staff meetings you’d have found out that the sole responsibility for appointing the student representatives lies with the Deputy Headmaster. You are most welcome to take this up with your other house representatives, and if you can persuade a majority of them to support you, even have my decision overturned. But until you do, my decision is final. You may return to your seats, and everyone, please enjoy your meal.”

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Daphne approached the intermediate meditation room with trepidation. Last week they’d all been knocked out, and despite what Harry and Hermione said, she wasn’t sure she was actually ready for this. To cap it all Tracy had badgered her to go because she was getting annoyed with getting electric shocks every time she tried to wake her up. As if she could talk, Daphne hadn’t been able to eat any profiteroles for desert since Tracey had started exhibiting her magic. But her head of house hadn’t given Tracy permission yet. Technically neither had Daphne’s but her mother had, and that was sufficient for the school.

Filch greeted her with a creepy smile on his face, and he fingered the knock out stick. Oh morgana, she hoped she wouldn’t need to be hit with that tonight, as the headache in the morning was just… Suffice to say that she was glad that they were across the hall to the infirmary.

“Take a seat, we’ve left Chirpy with Nicole for tonight so we don’t need to worry about them disappearing on us.” She looked up to see someone she assumed was harry gesturing to the cushions and beanbags strewn around the room.

“What have you done with your look?”

“Oh, this. I sometimes lose concentration on my form at this time of night, and if I do and shift forms it’s distracting enough that I start to delve the dream. Given the fact that Filch is here to watch over us I’d rather not wake up with another headache thank you. I’m also more comfortable as a girl these days, so I’m staying like this. My mind healer says it’s because most of my first positive life experiences happened at Hogwarts while I needed to remain a girl to sleep in the dorms. But you probably don’t want to hear about that.”

“No, it’s fine. I guess like a lot of people I still put you on a bit of a pedestal, even though I’ve known you for a year now.”

“Yeah, tell me about it, that’s another reason why I stay a girl. I can’t walk down Diagon alley in less than 5 minutes if I’m a boy. At least like this, well like my more normal girl form, people get to know me first. How are things for you in Slytherin?”

“They’re doing ok, Crabbe and Goyle are both doing better, they’ve both been given a phonetic dictionary, whatever that is.”

“It’s a dictionary that’s organised by the sound of the word rather than the spelling.” Hermione’s voice comes from the doorway.

“Oh, thanks. Why would anyone need that?”

“Some people can’t associate certain sounds with letters very easily, so these dictionaries are designed to help them find the correct word, and slowly learn the correct spelling and meaning.”

“That makes sense when you put it like that.”

“Anyway, Lavender and Parvati are just coming, they helped me get Susan to an infirmary bed as her permission came in yesterday. You might want to get started as you’ll want to be already supressing when the hour switches over as it is going to be a shock. We’re going to be helping Filch to watch over you and chat once we’re sure that you’re fine.”

“Some people have all the luck.”

“Na, Hermione and I have been meditating since before school started last year. I’ve been doing it slightly longer, but only by a week. We also moved onto the next stage during the summer. We’re mainly waiting for you guys to catch up so that we’re not alone and have more people to talk to about it.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel better I think.”

“Don’t you’ve made phenomenal progress considering you only started this year.”

Daphne snorts, “Not really, I’ve been doing occlumency since I was 8.”

“Oh shit, you need to stop that then, as it’s bad for your development. Would you mind if I mention this to my mind healer tomorrow, I won’t use your name. If and if she agrees, ask you to come and see her instead of me for that session?”, an edge of panic in his voice as he shifts automatically.

Daphne looks as though she’s been struck as she struggles to voice a response in a strangled voice, “Er, yes, ok? But I’m hardly unusual, most of the people in Slytherin do it too.”

Harry just holds his head in his hands as Hermione moves over to comfort him.

“Don’t worry, it’s not you. Occlumency was the first thing he asked about once he found out what it did, and he was then given a litany of horror stories about people who had stunted their emotional development by practicing it before puberty. There were also stories about some children that couldn’t express emotions because they learnt it so young and kept themselves sunk in their barriers so much that they never learnt to actually deal with their emotions. He swore to me at that point that he wouldn’t even consider starting until a mind-healer said that he was safe to do so after telling me these stories.”

Daphne collapses into a beanbag that happened to move right where it was needed, her hair starting to wave uncontrollably.

“I didn’t know, oh merlin, Astoria.”

“What’s going on?” Lavender’s voice calls from the entrance.

“Do you remember the stories that Harry told us about occlumency late last year?”

“Yes?”

“Daphne’s just found out about that from Harry.”

Lavender and Parvati knelt down on either side of Daphne and comforted her until she started to get herself under control again.

Harry sniffed, blew his nose on a Hankey which then disappeared and with a conscious effort switched back to a girl, she then glanced over at Filch who had his whacker out and was looking at his pocket watch.

“Ok, I think you’ve got a minute or two. Daphne, do you think you’ll be ok meditating tonight or do you want him to just hit you now?”

As Lavender and Parvati found a cushion each and started meditating, Daphne took a deep breath and centred herself. “I think I’d like to try.”

“Ok, then get started now, you’ll know when it starts.”

Just before she closed her eyes she saw Filch walk over to stand behind her. Oh great, that’s all she needed.

She managed to find her magic and push it down into it’s quiet state, and then IT started. When they said that she’d know she hadn’t known what to think. But she simultaneously felt like she was floating on top of the deepest ocean with a weight around her middle at the same time as someone had just given her a taste of ambrosia and was holding it tantalisingly just below the surface. At the same time she was at the top of a high mountain and felt like the freedom of the sky was just a moment away, all she needed to do is take a step and fly. She held herself in that state, not allowing her magic to chase after those temptations. She was acutely aware of a trickle of sweat making its way down her cheek to drip off of her chin into her lap. Then she heard the murmur of voices and she lost her grip on her magic, just as she was scrabbling to bring it back under control everything went dark.


	9. Chapter 8

_Unlike the muggle world, the magical world doesn’t naturally have sociopaths or psychopaths. Instead ours are always made in some way. Which is worse is a topic that has bothered many armchair philosophers in the healer’s offices over the last few centuries. But the point is academic. In this research paper we have conclusively traced one cause of sociopathy to root causes. The body is the magic and the magic is the body is a truism that is known and accepted in magical healing circles. It is why we can regrow limbs, eyes, and cure vicious injuries with only a spell, a potion, and time. But the converse is also true, we can’t regrow a limb that was lost too long ago, we can’t heal injuries caused by spells that also target the soul without first ridding the soul of the spell. This is because our magic changes to reflect our bodies._

_Occlumency is a magical discipline that causes changes in the body. The muggles would say that it changes hormone levels in the brain. When this happens in a brain that’s still maturing, those changes start to be reflected in the users magic. If the problem isn’t corrected by the time they reach maturity, they will find that they have lost the ability to feel and empathise because those pathways will be forever damaged in their brains and the chemicals will not be correctly released. Some unfortunates can still feel fear and anger, and this often leads to them acting out to just feel something._

* * *

Daphne woke on a hospital bed with a pounding head.

“Good morning.” Madam Pomfrey said in a too loud voice, she didn’t remember the headache being this bad last week.

“Miss Brown and Patil haven’t woken up yet this morning, although Miss Bones woke up earlier with a slight headache but none the worse for wear apart from that. How are you feeling?”

“Ugh, like an Erumpent danced on my head.”

“Oh you poor thing, good thing that today’s Saturday, you and the others are going to be here until lunch time so that I can monitor how you’re doing. I hope you don’t mind, but I took some scans when Harry and Hermione woke me up at two this morning.”

“No, it’s ok.”

“Fantastic! Well I’ll get started then.” She sounded far too cheerful.

Madam Pomfrey had just finished her scans when the other two woke up. She then bustled over and went through the same thing with them. Daphne was glad of the privacy charms as it allowed her to not hear what she was saying to the others while she went over last night. Her headache was just starting to recede when Harry and Hermione walked in with Caretaker Filch.

Harry made her head start to pound again when he said brightly, “Hi guys, I just wanted to say that you all did really well for your first time, considering that you weren’t over prepared for it. Daphne, you especially. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Filch for watching over us last night. I think that we could have been in real trouble if all three of you had started to have problems at the same time without him. None the less, Daphne, you managed to last around 10 minutes, Lavender and Parvati you both managed around 25 minutes.”

Daphne nodded at the praise, though her head begged to differ.

“Just so that you know, when you start to delve you will fall asleep as soon as you come back to earth. But by that time we will no longer be able to rely on Filch for aid. So again, thank you Filch, and see you again next Friday.”

“You’re welcome”, he grumbled out, “just wish I could use those manacles.” He said as he walked out of the infirmary. Daphne could see the slight smile on his face and the more erect stance he had.

“Well, I’ve got to see my mind healer in the office here, so I’ll leave you to talk to Hermione. See you soon.”, Harry walked into the office and shut the door.

“How did the three of you find it?”

Daphne opens with, “If you hadn’t warned me just how hard it would be I think I’d have failed from the get go. I just didn’t think that the difficulty would be in just how tempting it is to let go. When you told me I thought it would be like something pushing or shoving me in and I had to resist. Instead it was like someone had taken everything that I loved and put it on a table in front of me and said, ‘All this is yours, all you have to do is let go’”

“That’s a lot like it was for me too.” Lavender and Parvati both agreed.

Hermione smiled ruefully, “I know, and it almost killed me. I did this only a few weeks after I met Harry, and I was desperate to prove that I was as good or better than him, so two nights before school started I set an alarm for a few minutes before one. Lucky enough it woke my parents, and Mum came in to see what was happening, as it was so scary. I just couldn’t hold onto my magic as it seemed to slip out of my grasp. I think that if they hadn’t been there, the good feeling would have carried me away until I just dissolved, but I somehow found the strength to try and pull my magic back in, and from what Mum and Dad said, we were seconds away from dissolving or becoming food for something when I managed to cram it back into it’s shell.”, by the time she finished tears where streaming down her face. 

A pair of arms reached around from behind her as Harry whispered in her ear, “Why didn’t you tell anyone? You don’t have to be strong all the time.”

Spinning round Hermione buried her face in Harry’s shoulder, pushing the long hair out of the way. “I couldn’t, I didn’t want you to see me as an idiot that couldn’t take advice.”

“Shh, you could never be an idiot. Impulsive sometimes but never an idiot.” She stroked Hermione’s hair with one hand. 

Looking over to Daphne she said, “My healer agreed to see you, I haven’t told her who you are, just that I found out you’d been practicing Occlumency since you were 8.”

“Thank you. Swallowing hard, her Occlumency shields came down so that she could function as she walked into the office.”

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It was afternoon by the time Daphne came out, and she felt absolutely exhausted. The healer had found extensive damage from the use of Occlumency too young, and she had taken her through her mind to show her just what she’d done to herself. Once that was done, she’d invited Daphne into her own mind to show her what those bits should look like.

She’d then spent the next 20 minutes fighting her Occlumency barriers while sobbing her eyes out. Now that she’d been shown, she couldn’t miss the automatic suppression she did when ever something happened that upset her or made her angry, or increasingly happy as well. The healer had kindly explained that parents from old families often taught their children Occlumency as a way of teaching children to be quiet. The problem was that those same lessons became an automatic response, where in an adult they would always remain a conscious response.

The good news was that she could learn to lose her dependency on Occlumency herself and learn how to deal with her emotions properly. It wouldn’t be easy, but she could do it. In another couple of years, it would require weekly sessions with a mind-healer, and if she reached adulthood. If she reached adulthood she’d be like her father. The thought that the cold emotionless man that she knew, the man who was strict and distant, but said that he loved them. The man that she’d never seen laugh or smile. She’d be like him instead of her mother, the person who had held her when she cried, who had signed her release form for the meditation, who had taken her to Harry’s party so that she could have fun with her friends.

The rest of the time with the healer had been spent learning the signs she needed to watch out for in her own mind. The healer actually approved of the meditation that she was doing, as it would bring her more in tune with her magic, and thus make it easier to feel when she activated her barriers.

She’d then had a talk with her about Astoria, and the fact that the healer had to contact a legal guardian, but it could be done under seal. She asked her to contact her mother, and include the information about why it was a problem.

With everything still rattling around in her head she started to head out. Leaning her head against the door she took a deep breath and then had to struggle to stop her barriers coming down. Feeling completely wrung out, she opened the door and went into the infirmary intending to head straight back to her dorm and try to deal with it. Instead she saw that the other four were still there talking quietly. Harry looked over at the sound of the click the handle made, concern clear on her face.

“Are you OK?”

For some reason the question threw her off, such a simple question, but after the last few hours her normal response slipped out, but it felt wrong.

“I’m fine… Actually, I’m not fine and I just don’t know.”

“I know what it’s like, granted it wasn’t until my fourth or fifth session that I got that feeling. Look, I’d rather this didn’t get banded about, everyone in my dorm knows as it’s kinda hard to hide. But for most of my life both my aunt and I were abused. My first sessions where spent getting comfortable enough with my healer to let her in. Once I was ready, she took me into my mind and I saw just how much damage there was. I have dissociative disorder, and with my ability to switch gender she said that I was only a few months away from developing a second personality. I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you ever want someone to talk to, I’m here for you, and I’ll listen for as long as you need me to.”

“We’re here for you.” Hermione added firmly, Daphne could see the declaration for what it was, even if Harry was still oblivious to it. Quite frankly she couldn’t fault her for it. If she’d met Harry first and got to know her, the fact that she could be married as a man and be the husband and lord of the house meant that she was a prize worth holding onto no matter the opposition.

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Then next morning the headmaster was present for once. The skin under his eyes the black lines of someone that hasn’t been able to sleep properly for a long time. His normally well-groomed beard tattered and unkempt, his robes a simple brown colour. His hand visibly shook as he reached for the noted Professor McGonagall handed him the notice that she received from St Mungo’s. The headmaster read it and then blanched.

“No, No! I will not allow it. The ministry has been trying to get it’s claws into Hogwarts for nearly 100 years, and I will not allow them to just waltz in here under the pretence of looking after the mental health of our students. Once they’re here they’ll want to poke around the library, and then they’ll steal our knowledge. I won’t allow it, my knowledge they’re only after my knowledge.” Madam Pomfrey calmly stood from the end of the teachers table and stunned him, before casting a couple of diagnostic charms.

“He seems to be suffering from sleep deprivation, symptoms include paranoia, delusions, and hallucinations. I’ll need to send him to St Mungo’s so that they can put him in an enchanted sleep for a couple of days until his mind catches up. I just don’t have the resources here to handle the complications that could arise from doing it here.”

“Will he be alright?” McGonagall asks.

“We had to do this to him 50 years ago, and he was fine after a couple of days rest. So probably. He’d been trying to investigate the chamber of secrets due to some attacks. I was a junior healer here at the time. While he was asleep, Miss Worthington was killed, and Hagrid was found with an acromantula. The Aurors put 2 and 2 together, Hagrid was expelled, and the attacks stopped. Albus has maintained ever since that it wasn’t Hagrid, the evidence just didn’t match up. He even made sure he got his job here. But there wasn’t much the headmaster could do, the attacks stopped when he was expelled, so for most people that was enough. This is probably just more of the same, and he’ll tell us what he’s been working on when he’s sure. I wish he’d share the load, but I’ve known him a long time, and he’s been bitten so many times by sharing his suspicions and then the wrong person is punished, and by the time the headmaster finds out no one will listen to him.” The two seemed to notice that the room was so quiet apart from their conversation that you could have heard a matchstick turning into a needle.

McGonagall coughed lightly and picked up the notice while Madam Pomfrey levitated the head master off to the infirmary.

“While I can’t ask you all to forget that you heard that, please respect the headmasters privacy and not tell your parents or people outside the school what you just heard. It’s all to easy to forget that the when the headmaster attended Hogwarts muggles hadn’t invented the car as he always seems to be so full of life. As any of your grand parent will be able to tell you, as you get older it becomes easier and easier to accumulate mistakes. For an academic as old as the headmaster that had fame and responsibility thrust on him, he has had more chances than most to accumulate those.

“Returning to the notice that we received. St Mungo’s has informed me that they discovered that some of the old houses are still teaching their children Occlumency despite the problems with the practice being well known for the last 20 years. As such they will be sending 3 mind healers to the school for the next 2 weeks. During this time everyone from a pureblood household will be required to see them for confidential interview. I urge all of you to be honest with them, as I have been informed that the consequences of not correcting the problems before you reach adult hood are quite dire if you wish to be a healthy member of society.”

Daphne almost jumped from her seat and ran from the hall, the only thing that saved her was Tracy putting a reassuring hand on her leg.

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For the people in the meditation group life fell into a routine, Neville got his permission a week after Susan, and went through the same process. Lavender, Parvati and Daphne all progressed much faster than the others, for Lavender and Parvati it was down to putting in so much practice last year, for Daphne it was a matter of proving to herself that she could do this, that she was not going to be her father. And so it was after they’d helped take the others into the infirmary that Harry turned to them and Filch and said.

“I think you three are ready to join Hermione and I in going further next week. Daphne I could see that it was hard for you to talk to us for the whole hour, but you did so I’m including you in this because of it. However, I’d like you especially to practice changing the state of your magic over the next week, after every spell if you can, return it to the quiet state, then only release as much as you need in order to cast the spells for the class. Lavender you and Parvati should do that as well, but you’ve already been learning to control your magic just to be able to come to my birthday party, so just make sure you are comfortable with doing it.”


	10. Chapter 9

Much to the surprise of many in Slytherin house, the appointments were all delivered discretely and took place in different locations throughout the school so that no-one could point at them and say this person was singled out. A few owls were sent out with a summary of the information that the healers presented, and permissions gained for most of them.

The number of people looking to join the Meditation club also swelled by four fold, as they learnt that Meditating to get in touch with their magic was a good way to tell when they were instinctively using Occlumency. Because of this Harry and Hermione were unable to take more than another 6 into the basic club as at the moment they were the only ones that knew enough about what they were trying to reach that they could teach it and spot bad habits before they arose.

If tonight went as planned then by Christmas they might have another 3 members that understood what was going to be happening, and could help. Lavender, Parvati, and Daphne had all pushed to move on faster than Harry and Hermione were exactly happy with, but they had to admit that they were able to hold a conversation for the entire session. But they’d need to come up with a better way to gauge when people were prepared to move on in the future. 

Harry smiled as she remembered the part of the previous weeks conversation where it came up that Dudley was born completely non-magical while they were talking about why he was in First Year rather than second. Filch had lost his customary scowl and taken an immediate interest in the conversation, and became positively friendly when he found out that it was possible to become magical, but he’d never be a witch or wizard. Snapping out of her revery as Filch checking his pocket watch caught her eye she looked at the witches she was going to be doing this with.

“Ready?” After she got assents all around she continued.

“You’ll need to be starting out meditating, and Hermione will travel first. Once she’s gone I’ll tell you and call your name. As each person delves successfully I’ll call the next person until I join you. We’ll then take 15 minutes and see how you’re doing before maybe doing one more. If you have any trouble whatso ever you need to shut down immediately, don’t try to bring it back under control. Tomorrow’s, well today technically, is Halloween and I don’t want a repeat of last year where I spent it dealing with something traumatic.

“Filch, thank you again for watching over us, I hope that Hermione and I can help with every one that falls asleep later. But I just wanted to say thank you before we started in case we fall asleep too.”

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Daphne sat in a circle with Lavender next to her and Parvati across from her. She started meditating and once she had her magic under control she opened her eyes and looked around. She could see that everyone else had done the same, then it was time, and she felt the sensation of promise just out of reach that she was becoming used to. Not familiar with, but used to. She focused on the visualisation of her magic that she used, like a bud on a flower. She saw Hermione smoothly fade out, and once she was no longer visible Harry called out Lavender’s name. Compared to Hermione her transition seemed to be agonisingly slow and jerky, with her snapping back into full visibility a couple of times. Finally, she disappeared completely and didn’t reappear after a few moments, then she heard Harry call out her name.

Closing her eyes, she tried to slowly open her flower and let her magic out a little. Something that had become fairly easy to do sitting on the bed with Tracy suddenly became much harder when as soon as it started to open magic started to rush in, and a feeling like someone had just found the perfect spot to rub on her head passed through her magic. Pulling it back she started again and got a little further before she had to pull back a little. Eventually, after what seemed like an hour, she heard Hermione saying something to her about how she’s almost there. Then, her flower grew slightly and all of the small movements she was making magnified slightly, the only reason she didn’t abort right then was that Hermione’s calm voice reassuring her that she was doing well, she just needed to pull it back slightly and find the balance point.

By the time she can open her eyes she can see that Parvati is almost here. She then double takes, as they haven’t gone anywhere.

When Harry fade in she ventures to speak. “I thought that we were supposed to be going to a different world?”

The tinge of awe in her voice causes her to look at Hermione when she says, “We are, look out the window.”

Standing up she walked over to the window and stopped, they were in the centre of a lush oasis filled with unfamiliar plants and animals. Beyond the wards she could see a desolate wasteland of rust brown rocks, sand and gravel.

A voice that was more a whisper or a feeling that audible spread through their room.

“Welcome young warlocks, if you can make it one more level I will be able to tell you more. The magic here is still to thin for me to [indecipherable] clearly.”

Harry looked at Hermione with surprise on her face before she spoke, “What do you think?”

Trying to hide her excitement, Hermione responds with, “I think that we’re in a replica of Hogwarts, and there is likely to be more answers in the next level. I confess I want to do it because it’s new, but I think it’s a great idea anyway.”

“What do the rest of you think? And how are you doing?”

Daphne ventures, “I think that either you or Hermione should go to that world and come back here immediately no matter what you find. Once we know what’s there we can make an informed decision. If you want my sensible suggestion that ignores Hermione’s desire, we should return to the classroom and tell the Deputy Headmistress in the morning.”

“Ok, we’ll put it to a vote, we have two the two options that Daphne outlined.”

Daphne voted to go back even though she knew that with four Gryffindors that was never going to fly. But she knew that she wanted to see as well.

“Ok, Hermione, do you want to go first or do you want me to go?”, even Daphne could see that Harry really wanted it to be her, as the magic in her eyes made the different layers sparkle.

“You can go first Harry”, Hermione said with a soft smile.

Faster than she’d have believed possible, Harry faded out and then faded back in, “It’s amazing, it’s in the middle of a rainforest as we expected, and it’s also in a copy of Hogwarts. Come on you have got to see this.”

She then faded out again.

“I’m always so jealous of how effortless she makes that look. Ok, which of you wants to go first?” Hermione turns to the three of them as she gets to that last bit.

Lavender opines, “Why not do it in the same order as before?”

“That works for me, I could use the break.”, Parvati agrees.

Daphne just nods in agreement, secretly both dreading and looking forward to that feeling again.

She sunk into her meditation again, and found to her surprise that staying in this world had only been around as hard as chatting in the club had been last week. She didn’t have long to ponder that before Hermione called her name. A little more prepared than last time, the sheer seductive pull of the dream still caught her off guard. Her flower opened a little more, and grew a tiny amount so it seemed like it was still only open as much as it had been before. She felt the balance point pass before Harry told her that she needed to come back this time. But it was so much harder to back off than it was the first time. Later she’d describe it to Tracey like being a leaf floating down a stream and the hill it’s on becomes slightly steeper. She eventually found the notch that was this world and opened her eyes as the strain left her.

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Harry watched with amusement from her plush seat by the window as each of her friends opened their eyes and then gawked at their surroundings. The fact that she and Hermione had had nearly 10 minutes to get used to their surroundings didn’t factor into it at all. Though the fact that Hermione was poking her in the side because of the expression on her face didn’t help matters.

Daphne was the first to recover her wits, though her expression jerked so Harry assumed that she’d accidentally used Occlumency to control her reaction and then stopped.

“What! How?” were the first intelligible words out of her mouth.

“I’m not sure, but I think that the ghost behind you might have some answers.” Three heads turned around as if a snitch had just gone past them.

In front of them stood a very faint ghost that was wearing a simple linen dress that had white cotton embroidery on it. Hermione remembered it would be called a shift in those days and was actually an undergarment.

In a formal tone of voice she spoke to all five of them, “Greetings young Warlocks, and congratulations on becoming accomplished witches. In accordance with tradition your quarters have now been moved from The Nest into the Library, that is this copy of the school. You have successfully traversed the Armoury, and the only layer left is the Sanctuary. Be warned that the trip between this layer and the Sanctuary is far, far harder than the two realm barriers that you crossed to get here. In these three realms there remains the possibility to be born without magic, in the next realm there is not such thing as a mundane born.”

Visibly relaxing her stance and voice, she continued, “Now that we have the formalities out of the way I assume you have some questions.”

Daphne pre-empted Hermione by a fraction of a second when she asked, “Who are you?”

“Has it been so long that people have forgotten that I exist? I am the living wards of Hogwarts ignited by the magic from a willing sacrifice I gave up my name in order to protect the school that I helped to build.”

Hermione jumped in, “What did you mean when you said our quarters have been moved from The Nest into the Library?”

“This is a story that may take some time, I’d offer you some refreshments, but I suggest that one of you at least returns to The Nest to let those waiting for you know that you’ll be here and you’re fine. Before you go, I’d like you to follow me in case you get caught outside The Dream, as you’ll need to know how to get back here during the daytime hours.” 

With that she lead them out to a junction between corridors and pointed at one of the Hogwarts crests that dotted the school.

“If you touch one of these crests and adjust your magic to this realm it you will be brought here, you can do the same to return to The Nest or travel to the Armoury. You will need to show the house elves how to use the crests as the house elves that used to live in the sanctuary have long left and I have not seen them for a few centuries. Now I would suggest that you return to your rest, and tomorrow return for the explanation. I would request that when you do you bring the Deputy Headmistress as I have some news that she must know, and there are additional things I can only speak of in my heart chamber in the sanctuary. But none of you are ready for that trip yet.”

She turns and starts to walk back to the room they came from, “Come I will show you where you came from, and then you can return and get some sleep.”

Feeling somewhat numb they followed her and then shut down their magic. When they returned to the room they started in they found that Filch was still there, and that Susan and Neville had both been knocked out. Soon enough it was only Harry and Hermione that were staying awake through sheer willpower as they waited for the minutes to pass before they could relax their magic.

Once it passed both Harry and Hermione perked up as their released the rigid control on their magic. After helping Filch with the sleeping students they were heading back to the main entrance with Filch when Harry spotted one of the Hogwarts crests.

“One moment, I’d like to try something before we go to bed.” Before Hermione could object she impulsively touched the crest and vanished to the second world. Immediately she felt herself being pulled into the dream unprepared and so she slammed down her magic and returned to earth.

Before she succumbed to unconsciousness she managed to say to Hermione “The Dream’s still going there.”


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to give a special shout out to a couple of people that have been reviewing on both AO3 and FFN.  
> Silvershadowleaf on AO3, thank you for your thoughtful comments.
> 
> KrisB-71854 on FFN - Thank you for the well thought out reviews, and also being so enthusiastic in PM's once I responded to your reviews.

_The purpose of this school is to teach the basics of magic to all magicals that wish to learn, and to also raise the next generation of mages. Warlocks we have a plenty, but mages that can take the fight to our enemies and rescue prisoners we have few._

_Excerpt from the diary of Helga Hufflepuff, found in the Hogwarts Sanctuary._

* * *

Hermione watched with a slightly concerned expression as Harry woke up in the infirmary bed beside her. She could see the Deputy Headmistress talking to Madam Pomfrey at the ward desk. When Harry moved she smiled as her first action was to rub her chest as if it ached, her books said that a girl her age would be starting to develop around now, but Harry was always so on guard even when she relaxed that she’d never seen her unconscious reactions before.

“Good morning sleepyhead, how do you feel?”

Harry yawns before she responds, “Pretty good really.”

“I’m glad, I told Professor McGonagall about what happened, and the other three are just checking their dorms as they didn’t believe me when I said that our beds were gone.”

“They are? Where did you sleep then?”

“I grabbed one of the beds here.”

Professor McGonagall came over as they were talking and surprised both of them when she spoke up, “Good Morning Miss Potter, I hear that you’ve had an eventful night.”

“We did, and I found out that the dream isn’t the same length in every world.”

“So I hear. I will need you to show myself and the head-elf Greysie how to get to your new Dormitories, as they are saying that your house has changed.”

“I’m sure that Hermione has already told you about it, but essentially yes, that’s true.”

“I’m sorry to have to ask this of you, as it’s something I canna do myself. But, would you be willing to use your transportation method to check that the level that you’re supposed to be living in is safe to travel to please?”

“Do you mind if I have some breakfast first please?”

“You may, but I was thinking that if it’s safe we should probably eat breakfast there and talk to the ghost you met. I trust you to be able to come back if it’s dangerous where I don’t think that any of the others except Hermione would be able to get away, and she tells me that you are faster than she is.”

Harry’s engrained instincts kick in and she finds herself agreeing before she remembers the lessons she’s been having with her mind-healer. Kicking herself all the way down the hall she touched the crest and held her magic just in case. The sound of a voice behind her made her jump.

“Well done young warlock, your new rank is well suited to you. While I didn’t expect you back until this morning, you did well last night for being caught off guard. If you would get the Deputy Headmistress and the house-elf that is waiting with her we can begin.”

“Er, um, thank you?” Harry then returns to the school that she knows

“Are you well Harry?”

“What? Oh, yes, I’m ok, erm, Hogwarts just asked me to bring you and the elf that was waiting with you, I’m sorry I don’t know your name, to that world.” Harry startles for the second time in five minute as McGonagall speaks up behind him after she didn’t move for a few seconds.

“Oh, and brace yourself, this will be a shock.”

Hermione butts in with, “I’ll take Greysie if you can do the Professor McGonagall.”

“Thanks, I was wondering how I’d do that, should we wait for the others?”

“I don’t know, Professor, would you be ok if we dropped you off there and then came back to meet the others and show them how to get to where we’re going?”

“Why don’t we see what it’s like on the other end before I make that decision?”

With that Harry took McGonagall’s hand and touched the crest. She noticed that it glowed with magic briefly before she was transported to the other castle. McGonagall held her hand to her chest as her magic expanded slightly and she felt slightly light headed at the feel of the magic rich environment.

A voice from behind said “Careful deputy, you’re still acclimatising to the magic here.”

She spun around swaying woozily and saw the ghost of a woman standing there with an amused smile on her face. A slight puff of air from behind her signalled the arrival of Hermione and Greysie. 

“Young elf, would you be able to help the deputy to a sitting room while the young warlocks go and inform their compatriots of where we are.” The ghost starts to walk off before turning back.

“Oh, and the dark haired one with the one from the house of snakes should be able to make her own way here if one of you shows her how. While she, the one from the house of the badger and the one from the house of the lion have not earned their own accomplishments they are well on the way, they need only do it through the dream themselves to do so. The ravens are also close, but they are young yet.”

With a slightly bemused expression on her face, Harry returned to the school with Hermione and they made their way back to the infirmary. Sure enough Tracey arrived with the others and so they exchanged glances.

“Hi guys, erm we’re having breakfast with the Deputy headmistress in the new part of the school we found, and erm, Tracey you were invited along too, but you need to make your own way there.”

Tracey just stares at Harry with a sceptical expression on her face, “And how am I supposed to do that oh great oracle.”

Hermione and Daphne stifled a giggle at the fish out of water expression that Harry had as she shifted into her boy form. Taking pity on him, she spoke up for him before his self confidence could be hurt anymore.

“You’re ready for the intermediate meditation group already, and are just waiting for permission. So it’s the same as you’re doing in meditation, except once you’re ready to travel you need to open up your magic to a certain level. It will feel very odd when you do it, and you might have trouble reigning it in, but as it’s daytime there’s no risk of overshooting. Daphne might be a bit better to try to explain it as she had to do it for the first-time last night.”

“Since when are you on first name terms with Daphne?”

“Almost all the way through meditation last week wasn’t it? I seem to remember you being a bit snappy at the fact we were all using our first names for each other and your house name.”

“It was, sorry about that, it was harder than I’d care to admit to, to keep talking rather than just concentrate on staying where I was.”

“It’s ok, you’ve done really well, and you don’t need to prove anything to me. Anyway, shall we get going?”

They all trooped back to a junction, and Harry showed them the embossed heraldry on the wall. When he touched it he was gone within a couple of breaths. Hermione indicated that Lavender and Parvati should go next, and they both took a good 30 seconds to make the transition.

“Davis would you prefer to go before or after Daphne?”

Tracey gave Hermione a calculating look before she responded, “I’ll go next.”

She confidently stepped up to the crest and placed her hand on it. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and quieted her magic as she’d been taught. She then opened it slightly, and suddenly it felt like it had been yanked open and she stumbled away from the wall as she came over light-headed. A pair of arms steadied her, and she snapped at the person holding her.

Caught off guard she snapped, “Is this your idea of a joke Granger?”

She heard Lavender laugh behind her, “I’m not Granger, and it isn’t a joke.”

Spinning around she almost falls over when she takes in her surroundings, the slightly green light reflecting off of the rainforest canopy warring with her brains disbelief at the fact that anything has changed. She rushed over to the window and stared out. Wait there wasn’t a window here before? She spun round in time to see Daphne appear.

“Daph, there’s a bloody great forest outside the window that wasn’t there before.”

“Trace, you can go looking for new magical animals later, at the moment we need to go and have breakfast with the Deputy Headmistress.”

“Do you mean Professor McGonagall?”

“I do, but she’s been invited here as Deputy.”

“Oh. Oh! Right shutting up now.”

Breakfast was a strange affair for all involved as it seemed that each bit of food was served by a different elf. Harry remembered the late-night conversation they’d had with Ceeley about having to hold her magic down all the time just to survive. He couldn’t imagine what it must be like being able to come to this realm, but he imagined that going back must feel suffocating.

Once they’d finished eating the ghost reappeared.

“I trust that you’ve all acclimated now? None of you are feeling light-headed anymore?”

McGonagall spoke up, “I think I speak for all of us when I say we feel fine now, thank you.”

“I’m told that it gets easier the more you do it, and if you’ve been much deeper than this already you probably won’t even notice the difference. Before we get to why I asked you to be here, I need to tell the elves something before they all disappear after cleaning up.”

One of the elves stops for a moment, “How’s can we’s be helping the great HoggyWarts?”

“It’s actually how I can help you. Between late evening and early morning I can transport elves that touch the Hogwarts seal in the elf quarters to the sanctuary and back. While there may be visitors to the sanctuary, the place was set up for your ancestors and you to live as comfortable a life as is possible away from your home world. It’s in quite a bit of disarray due to the fact that no elves have been there for nearly 500 years, but it is yours.”

“Thank you HoggyWarts, Loosy will spread the word.”

McGonagall opened her mouth to ask a question but the ghost pre-empted her, “I will be covering that and more shortly, I also need to show you to your office here where I need to have a private chat with you. If it get’s too late you’ll need to sleep here, as you are not ready to move around unaided at night.”

“My name is Hogwarts, well that was my title as it translates to modern English, it sounded much more impressive when the land was granted to me shortly after the Romans withdrew from the Scottish border. I remember when Artemis displaced Selene as the goddess of the moon. It was around that time that I ascended to the ranks that would later be called an Archmagis and became immortal in most senses of the word. Those two have already made the journey accidentally, and it has left it’s mark as it does on all of us, you only need to do it deliberately in order to earn that title. When the rest of you are able to reach the Sanctuary unaided you will have earned the rank of Apprentice Mage.

However, I digress. When I chose to travel the dream the sleepers were still awake and sought to gather enough followers to be able to visit this realm without issue. The younger gods helped to fight them off after most of the titans had sacrificed their mortal bodies to bind the sleepers to the sea of magic. Even with their influence hobbled, they still hold immense power on earth as they are so magical that iron has no affect on them. This is even without the fact that the only iron we had was from star falls. The fae raided with impunity, and it was only due to people like me that the cities of the era were safe to live in. Some day I’ll tell you about when I met Gilgamesh. As we developed more reliable ways to train magi and warlocks I move further away from the established civilisations to places where my skill were needed to tip the balance. 

Then the Romans refined the wand, I won’t say invented as pointy sticks have been used as focuses for a lot longer than the wand as you know it has existed. What they did is they discovered how to add the core of a magical animal to the focuses that people were using. This meant that they didn’t need to spend 2 or 3 years teaching witches or wizards how to control their own magic before teaching them how to cast spells. Of course they weren’t the only ones to find faster ways to teach magic, the Norse had their runes, and the Celts had their ogham and nature magics. But the wand was by far the simplest and quickest to teach. 

That’s why Salazar chose to teach the usage of that first in The Nest, and branch out into the other structured magics from Europe once they had the foundations down. When I met them in the year 800 according to the christian calendar, they were all accomplished mages, and had ventured through the middle layers of the dream to see magic coursing across the sky. Though they still couldn’t overcome that last barrier to become Archmagi. They were looking for a place to build a school, and I was considering exploring the sea of magic. If they’d been a century later I’d have probably left already.

As it stands they met me and I allowed them to use this valley for their school. Over the next 100 years we tried to make something that existed across realms and would allow us to give the students the experience they needed to become warlocks and magi without the ever-present risk of attack. We came up with a solution that required a willing sacrifice, and would then last for as long as their magic would allow. We spent the next 150 years building the schools from the heart stone out towards earth. Godric defended us, Helga healed us, and Rowana and Salazar helped me lay the runes and purify the iron that fills the walls. Even though it cost him his wife, Salazar stayed until the end, and his son never forgave him for it. At the end I bequeathed the land to Godric and Salazar and during one dream the four of them held the wards open and linked across all four worlds while underwent the ritual sacrifice. I confess that I rightly expected to die, instead after I shed my physical form and poured all of my magic into the heart stone I became Hogwarts.

“So here I am Hogwarts at your service, and thus my introduction is over. Would you do me the pleasure of introducing yourselves?”

All of the people present were absolutely engrossed in her story and so it took them a moment to recover.

McGonagall was the first, and so the first to speak, “I am Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and transfiguration teacher. I don’t have nearly such an illustrious introduction as your so I beg your forgiveness. Everyone here may call me Minerva while we’re not in The Nest, wasn’t it?”

“It was, the school has 4 parts to it, The Nest is where the young were taught and nurtured. The library is the realm that we’re in now, and those that were seeking to become accomplished witches and wizards would come here much like your companion did.”

“My name is Tracey Davis, and I guess everyone here can call me Tracey.”

“Much like Tracey did. Between the two is the Armoury, which although closer to Earth is harder to get to for those that aren’t yet Warlocks like the rest of you, as it needs the control over your magic that you only learn through the hardship of moving through the dream. Finally we have the Sanctuary, the place for Apprentice Mages to study and learn to hone their craft, and also a place for house-elves to live in peace.”

Once it became clear that she’d finished again, Harry spoke up, “I’m Harry Potter, though I was born a boy.”

“You are a boy my dear.”

Harry looked down at himself in surprise, “Huh, I normally switch to a girl when I’m as distracted as I was at your introduction. Anyway, this is the form I’m most comfortable in.”. She shifted to her girl form as she was speaking.

“Unsurprising given your heritage, the Sidhe tend to represent both male and female equally and only settle on a gender as they reach maturity. Though your healer is encouraging you to seek balance which will serve you well in the future, as you’ll find that some things come easier as a man compared to as a woman, and the reverse will be true too. Your human companions are less constrained, but that’s because humans are naturally more balanced anyway.”

Lavender spoke up next, “I’m Lavender Brown, at your service.”

“I’m pleased to meet you young warlock.”

Daphne went next, “I am Daphne Greengrass, may I ask how we should address you formally?”

“You may, though there really is no formal way of addressing the likes of I, or other Magi, we are our own titles, and on earth our power speaks for itself. But if you must use a Title you could use Lady or Archmagis.”

“Thank you Lady Hogwarts. Everyone here has leave to call me Daphne.”

Harry speaks up, “Oh sugar, I forgot about that. I was raised with muggle customs, so we assume that people will call us by our first names. But everyone here can call me Harry.”

“My name is Hermione Granger, everyone can call me Hermione. As this level is called the Library, does that mean that there’s one here?”

Hogwarts laughs, “Yes young warlock, there is one here, and also one in the sanctuary. The only level that you won’t find books, or much of anything else for that matter, is the Armoury as learning to use your magic directly can be a little… destructive.”

“Thank you.”

“I guess last but not least, I am Parvati Patil. I am absolutely awed to meet you, and you can call me anything you want to.”

“Thank you, but that will not be necessary. You must all be parched, after listening to me talk, so why don’t we break for something to eat and drink and you can have a look around.”

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Meanwhile in The Nest, all of them had lost 30 points because Snape had been unable to find them, he was also fuming because he couldn’t find McGonagall for the headmaster.

The twins were pouring over a map trying to find the missing students.

Luna had assured everyone in the meditation group that they were safe and were still in Hogwarts, they’d just been kind of resorted. And yes Nicole, if we work hard at our meditation we can be resorted by the end of the year too, and there’s a great library where the new rooms are.


	12. Chaper 11

Hogwarts leads the group around the castle for a whirlwind tour of the major landmarks, pointing out the three major libraries. Each dedicated to a different subject. The first, advanced and slightly restricted focus based magic. The second free-form magic, they were told that this was mostly discussions on what people had used it for and how they visualised it, as freeform magic was highly personal and couldn’t be pigeon-holed the way that focus based magic could. The final one was for non-magical subjects, such as history, flora and fauna of the three worlds that students could freely access. They were then led to the Dormitories where their things had been placed into individual rooms.

“Hogwarts?” Hermione asked.

“Yes?”

“Where are the door handles?”

“You are the door handles.”

“Huh?”

“You are here because you have been learning how to control your magic. Now you are here you need to learn how to use it. So like the armoury, apart from the places that people like Tracey here can visit, everywhere else requires you to consciously use your magic to access, even the main doors and the dining area that we’ll be using. It is to teach you to consciously use your magic and get used to doing so. By learning to do that it also helps to cut down on your unconscious uses of magic. For all of you, your imagination and knowledge will be far more important than any lists of spells that you could memorise. So, go ahead and open your door.”

Hermione immediately pulled out her wand and flicked an Alohomora at the door, and absolutely nothing happened.

“Oh, my dear child. You need to open the door, not use a tool to do it for you. But maybe we should leave this till after we’ve eaten and spoken, then you can explore and play while I have a much needed talk with the Deputy Headmistress.”

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They all found them seated in plush chairs around the fire in the great hall. 

“You have now eaten and drank to your hearts content, so now we should really get into what you’ll be doing in addition to your normal lessons, as well as a few warnings. First, I need to explain a bit about the nature of the realms and the names that those that live near the balance point call things. This is important because you will see these terms pop up in the literature here pretty much interchangeably.

“The balance point and associated realms reach from the shore of the sea of magic to the edge of the desert. We called this these the middle realms. Magic makes up a more or less equal part of everything. A consequence of this is that it is the only part of the realms that we can travel to where creatures of pure magic like your familiar can develop naturally. This consists of 7 realms, 3 on either side of the balance point. It is also home to the Sidhe and other fae, as a mortal race they are far more likely to raid the earth now that people have started traveling out of the desert again than the other threats.

“Between there and here is the lesser desert, or the outer realms as we called them. Magic permeates everything and there is no person or creature there that you would not consider to be at least a squib. The threats of these realms are all local, rather than something we would need to worry about, however that doesn’t mean that they’re not dangerous. But, their highly valuable for that, the creature that one of your students fondly calls a crumple-horned Snorkack. Though how anyone can think of a bear the size of a polar bear with a magical horn that causes complete and total paralysis in it’s prey when it strike with it, fondly I don’t know. However, most of their carcass used to be used in many potions when the school was built. There are also the stones and ores that the goblins favour, drenched in magic, and changed because of it.

“Harry, Hermione, do either of you have the control needed to release your magic and control how much you release without doing anything with it?”

Both of them shake their heads, a slightly confused expression on their faces.

“No, never mind then. One other thing that all of the realms that we’ve just spoken about have in common is that time there doesn’t run at the same speed as it does on earth. In the sanctuary for example a day lasts for 48 hours, and half of that is spent open to the dream. None of you are ready for that sort of exposure yet, as you don’t have enough sub-conscious control over your magic. Living in this level will make you learn that control though, as this world is open to the dream for 9 hours a day, so you’ll need to get used to reigning in your magic while you’re moving around. Don’t worry about being caught out, the castle walls light up with blue fire for 30 minutes before it starts so that visitors have time to return to earth or find somewhere to sleep through it. This leads me to one rule that you need to know, you are not allowed to bring any magical to this level or the armoury. They can go their on their own, but it is a punishable offense to do it, and if they get lost in the dream you will be expelled. You can ask me for permission to bring someone over, and I will keep an eye on them and render them comatose if necessary. But bringing someone without permission is akin to attempted murder.”

Lavender and Parvati look a little confused, but Parvati is the one who speaks up, “Why is it attempted murder to bring someone here?”

Daphne answers before Hogwarts or McGonagall can, “It’s because they can’t leave here without assistance, and most people only sleep for 8 hours or less. Which combined with the fact that the dream either starts at 8pm, or finishes at 9am.”

Hogwarts clarifies helpfully, “The first one I think, though I never had the opportunity to learn about the time you use on clocks as they were invented after people stopped visiting.”

“Thank you, that makes it even worse. If you remember the school wide curfew for 1st and 2nd years is 8 for the dorms, and 9 for bed. After 3rd year that gets moved by an hour. So say I brought Draco here to do some homework with me. If we managed to ‘lose track of time’ and I ‘didn’t notice’ the blue flames on the walls, by the time he realises that it’s curfew and if I dallied just a little to long, he be pulled into the dream completely unprepared. I would then be able to claim that I didn’t realise the time, oops. Which brings up a question, did we actually need Filch to watch over us while we were learning to get through the evening?”

“Well done young warlock. Yes, that is exactly the sort of twisted reasoning that people have tried to use in the past, and is why I insisted on having that rule written into the charter. It’s precisely because anyone that needs to be brought here cannot return under their own power that it is attempted murder. It also applies to the Armoury even though the dream there is only 3 hours as it has so little traffic, and has very few amenities beyond classroom and practice.”

Minerva speaks up her accent more apparent than normal, “Why have you moved these students dorms to here if it’s so dangerous?”

“There’s a few reasons, and I suppose the least important would be that if a student can reach here on their own, they have enough control over their own magic to resist the pull for long enough that I can knock them out, if it’s even needed. So they no longer need to stay in The Nest. The second is that as the most experienced I was given the responsibility of teaching warlocks and mages. While Godric would teach in the Armoury, they were lessons that could be done in The Nest if it came to it, so he would take classes there to avoid damaging anything important. I suppose it would be as if your Defence against the Dark Arts class had a strong practical component, rather than just identifying and learning the counters to certain spells that you classify as dark for some reason, while I remember you need to have a new head of department emblem commissioned for the combat magic department, as the one that’s currently in use has a minor poor judgement charm engraved on it, it’s not that bad, but it mounts up and over a year or so can cause serious problems.”

Minerva’s mouth gapes for a moment before she asks for clarification, “What do you mean emblem for combat?”

“You have an emblem do you not?”

“Aye.” She pulls out her emblem.

“Ah, you have the emblem for unstructured magic, I do love your lessons as you’ve been one of the better instructors over the last several centuries. But you would have been head over the illusion and healing teachers as well if you still taught those classes, as both disciplines rely far more on what you know, and what you can visualise than they do specific spells. Even the simplest healing spells can heal grievous wounds if the healer has enough knowledge about what they’re healing and can visualise the process. There was also the Head of structured magic, which I believe your charms instructor currently holds the emblem. This was charms, runes, and rituals, as it didn’t matter what you knew, the spells only do what they say they do. You can’t make a lumos show a horse or a house, you can’t make the levitation spell work like a catapult. Oh, you can get creative uses out of them, such as casting a detached lumos in front of your opponents eyes, or levitating a club over a trolls head and dropping it. Indeed that’s what the Combat department was supposed to teach in addition to threat identification and neutralisation. How to take what you’d learnt in the other two magic areas and apply them creatively on the battlefield and in life. The last area of study that was the domain of The Nest was Academics, which was supposed to teach the ability to think, analyse, put those thoughts to paper, and research. Instead it only teaches History now, I suppose you could include Arithmancy in that. Sorry I’m ranting.”

“No, don’t worry, if all of your rants are this informative you never need to worry about ranting around me. Where would Astronomy, Divination, and Care of magical creatures fit?”

“Divination is easy, that came under your department, though it was never a full class before, though a diviner was kept on staff because they could warn of attacks. Why you have a prophet teaching divination I don’t understand, as the future was always a very small and niche part of Divination and the various Oracles around the world would usually snap up prophets as they were aware of the best way to pull out their talent. Oh and do go easy on her drinking habit, she really does have the sight, and it’s the only way for her to stay in the present, though I would suggest she uses hallucinogenic herbs rather than incense if she’s trying to induce visions of the future in her students. Astronomy was part of ritual magic. Finally, I can’t believe I forgot the Natural world, I think your Herbology professor has that particular emblem, and potions and care come under that. I’m sure that Helga had all of this written down somewhere in one of her journals, they’re in the headmasters office in the sanctuary. Sorry about forgetting that one, the natural world was always the domain of alchemists when I was younger, and so held no interest to me.”

“So what department were you in charge of?”

“Freeform magic and exploration. I taught students how to rely on their own magic and how to use focuses as a tool rather than a support. I could also teach them how to walk from here to Greece in seconds, or turn a door into a portal, or even just to vanish from one place and appear in another. I also showed them how those abilities could be disrupted and the most common counters or work arounds for it. Though latter is reserved for mages, as only a slight variation on it would render your wand worse than useless, as it would give you a false sense of ability. In fact… Yes, we can demonstrate that. Hermione, would you be able to just let go of your magic and concentrate on just letting it spread out across the room?”

Hermione does as asked with a few directions from Hogwarts, though she’s surprised at just how hard it is to let it be there and not do anything with it.

“Well done, I can see how easy this was which means that both you and Harry are going to find it harder to learn the finesse you need later, as it will be like learning how to crack a walnut with a Maul, while your companions will struggle with exercises like this that require power more than finesse. Minerva, would you please try to turn your teacup into a bunny? Hermione all you need to do is keep your magic like this.”

Minerva pulls her wand and does the third year transfiguration with a contemptuous flick of her wand, and nothing happened. Frowning she tried again, then again with the verbalisation and wand motion, and finally she did it with her full concentration and it slowly turned into a bunny with ceramic teeth and a handle instead of a tail.

“What? What happened, I’ve not had that much trouble with transfiguration since I was a wee lass.”

“Well done Hermione, you can draw your magic back in now. What happened is that I had Hermione blanket the area with her own magic. This then imbued everything in the area with that magic, so when you were trying to transfigure the teacup you needed to first push her magic out of the teacup, and then while keeping it out perform the transfiguration. Because of the difference in power you needed to rely on all of your experience with transfiguration to make your spell focused enough to push through her magic and use your spell. If Lavender, Parvati, or Daphne had done the same I doubt you’d have even noticed. Though their peers would. Equally, apart from the headmaster I doubt there is anyone else in the school who could have succeeded at the spell. This is something that the Sidhe do naturally on top of their skill with magic and sword. That Harry here doesn’t suggests that they are of mixed heritage. I warn you both now, do not practice this without me, as you are powerful enough that you may kill yourselves if you try to do it for too long in realms with as little magic as this one. It’s like using magic to fill a bladder with air. If you do it at the surface you can only fill it so fast while the air is allowed to escape before it bursts. But if you do it deep underwater, you can fill it faster because the weight of the water resists the expansion of the air. But equally the larger amount of air doesn’t go as far.”

“Oh, you’re talking about pressure, and how it always wants to equalise. Muggles have equations that describe that process precisely.”

“I’m sure they do child, but you have to remember that I’m over 2000 years old, so their recent inventions don’t really interest me, especially as magic makes all of those predictions more or less useless.”

Harry touches her arm, “I’d like it if you could explain it to me simply later, as it seems like knowing it will be important.”

“Before I send the children off to play and explore, I need to impart one warning. The Crawling Chaos is abroad once more, if you see a man that looks like he comes from the deepest parts of Africa, but with more middle eastern features, run. Do not stop to talk, just run and call my name. I will try to buy you enough time to escape as he does not have enough power to make me submit here on these worlds. He has already marked two on your world that I know of, a young man in the 1940’s who subsequently tried to perform the Egyptian ritual of anchoring to prevent his soul from being taken. However the version he used seems to have been sabotaged, as he instead split his soul, he left a piece in my audience hall in The Nest, which given recent circumstances I’d like it if you could transport it out of Hogwarts soon. It appears that he tried to do the ritual again, as the Headmaster has a piece, and it was by investigating that he came in contact with The Crawling Chaos, and has been marked. If you do come into contact with it, remember that they can only mark you if you give some sign of acceptance. It is true for all magic of the soul, it can only ever work with the agreement of both parties, the greater the disparity of power the less agreement is needed. With the disparity in power or experience that you all have, simply acknowledging that he has you in his power and there’s nothing you can do is enough, with more experience Harry and Hemione he would need some sort of verbal acknowledgment. With more power the same would be true for you Minerva. Just remember that while you’re in my walls I can and will come to your aid and give you time to escape to The Nest were he can’t go unless summoned. Be warned, if you ever learn it’s name, to speak it’s name is to summon it. Now off with you, I need to have a chat with Minerva. Oh, and Tracey, I think you should be getting back to The Nest if you want to attend the feast, the rest of you, if you want to get into your bedrooms I suggest you start working now, otherwise you’ll be trying to do it and deal with the dream at the same time.”


	13. Chaper 12

Dumbledore looked out over the students his grandfatherly persona plastered over his face, while also wearing one of his more colourful outfits. Inside he was glum and seething, yes he felt lots better for the enforced sleep he’d had at St Mungo’s, but when he gets back he can’t find Minerva, and the books he was researching had vanished from the restricted section. Madam Pince was currently on the warpath as she didn’t know where the books were either, and was tearing the library apart looking for them. The house elves were no help either, as all they would say is that they’d moved them to the correct part of the library. So here he was watching over the students enjoying their feast rather than furthering his research. He had taken the Mirror to a near by mountain and destroyed it with Fiendfyre, reasoning that it’s influence is probably what kept allowing Nyarlathotep, no HIM, must stop thinking HIS name, to invade his dreams. He’d find out later tonight he guessed. But he’s also had no luck finding Minerva either, so he couldn’t even beg off due to not feeling well, as one of them had to be here. He was sure that there was something wrong with the elves, as they kept telling him that she was in the library when he asked.

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Tracey poked at her food listlessly, the Halloween celebration seemed pointless given everything that she’d learnt today. She looked around at all the happy faces, even the ones in her own house that were more calculating than happy. Yesterday there was only one world, the earth, and what she learnt here was just to get the grades and ability to use her wand before going into the family business, getting married, or going into politics. She supposed that for many, that’s where it would stay. Sitting bolt upright as she had an epiphany, it took everything she had not to run to the nearest crest and find Daph to share her revelation as it would only put her in danger. Warlocks were the same as everyone else, except with a larger world. That’s why there was the distinction between warlocks and mages. And that’s how she could sell this to her dad. Quickly pulling out her wand she transfigured a napkin into some parchment with as much magic as she could and also transfigured a quill and ink. Ignoring the feast going on around her she carefully wrote a letter to her father that would tell him what she’d be able to do, that someone they were in friendly competition with could already do it, and then ask for the permission slip to be signed.

_Father,_

_I have learnt some news today that I felt that you needed to know now rather than later. The meditation that I’m learning, will allow me to visit places that have rare potions ingredients that we haven’t been able to supply for centuries. Daphne Greengrass has already passed the Intermediate level, and is now able to visit those places in Hogwarts that require the control of our magic that the meditation club is teaching us. They appear to have discovered it quite by accident last night, and Daphne invited me along to see today. Professor McGonagall was also there with us if you wish to verify what I’ve said._

_Please would you expediate my permission to attend the intermediate club despite the slight risks that are out of the normal scope of the school._

_Your dutiful Daughter_

_Tracey Davis_

Folding up the letter she slipped it into her robe and carried on with pretending to enjoy the feast. A couple of other Slytherins noted that she’d written something important and assumed it was due to Greengrass’ absence. Making a mental note to keep an eye on that they turned back to their own meals.

As soon as she saw people starting to get up and leave the feast she was up and gone to the Owlery to send the letter tonight. As such the missed the kerfuffle as Filch mourned the loss of his cat as she was found petrified by 3 first year Ravenclaws returning from a Death Day Party, and the unholy light in the headmasters eyes as he found out that someone was accessing the Chamber of Secrets again.

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The next morning Tracey was up and dressed ready to leave the moment curfew was lifted. She was joined in the common room by a couple of NEWT students that were taking Arithmancy or Runes. They looked at her strangely as all of her year mates were still asleep, and only some of the older years had even stirred. Given today was a Sunday it was very out of character for anyone that didn’t need the extra study time to even be awake now. As soon as the snakes on the door turned their heads into a sleeping pose Tracey was out of the door and raced from junction to junction until she found a Hogwarts Crest. Placing her hand on it she struggled to supress her magic, and once she had she let it rise until she felt it yank her into The Library.

“Well done young witch, you did it on your own today. Though I saw you struggled to get your magic into the right place to start with. Considering that you’ve not yet fought against the pull of the dream, you did very well indeed. Your companions have not yet woken for the day as getting into their rooms was rather more trying than they expected. But they did all manage it in the end. While we’re waiting I could walk you through what you’re doing and then you can try it a few times again.”

Slightly overawed that she’d be getting one on one tutoring on this from someone that lived in Ancient Greece, she responded in the only way she could.

“I would like that, thank you.”

“Then follow me child, there are a few rooms that are very near a crest we can use. Now what are you using to visualise your magic?”

“Huh?”

“Ah! I see. You’ve made a common beginner’s error, one that is often knocked out of you the first time you face the dream. You are trying to get your magic to do stuff without having any way to visualise what it is. You could go far without ever learning this lesson, but you’re not really able to finely control your magic without it. You see the core of freeform magic is being able to visualise what you want your magic to do. If you can’t even visualise your magic you are hampering yourself as you can’t fit that image into what you’re going to do. Especially at the beginning. Once you’ve got a few decades under your belt you probably won’t even notice the visualisation except when you’re crossing the realm boundaries. Give it a few centuries and you won’t even notice it then unless you’re pushing yourself.”

They arrive at a nicely appointed study with a chair and desk, a fireplace and a couple of armchairs along with a small bookshelf.

“Take a seat and we’ll begin.”

Tracey sank into one of the armchairs and it was as comfortable as it looked.

“Close your eyes and drift into the state where you can feel your magic, but don’t reach out for it.”

Hogwarts voice took on a melodic, soothing tone as Tracey followed her instructions, the process coming far easier than it had before.

“Now I want you to imagine that there’s a light in there with you, it’s illuminating the world around you… Take your time and don’t force it, it’s ok if it doesn’t come immediately… Just relax and be patient it will happen in it’s own time.”

Every time she was tempted to push out of frustration, Hogwarts soothing voice interrupted her and she settled back. Slowly she saw something starting to become visible in the darkness that she didn’t realise was darkness until just now.

“Don’t rush it, it’s coming in it’s on time and to push now will take you back. Just relax you can see it’s happening.”

Hogwarts voice stilled her urge to do something to make it happen faster, and slowly ever so slowly she could see a forest clearing appear, a stream feeding a small pond before flowing out the other side over some rocks. Then she heard the sounds of birds calling from the trees.

“There you are, you’ve found it. Now I want you to slowly, very slowly do what you were doing before and see how it changes.”

She started to reduce her magic, then slowed down again, and again, and frustratingly again as Hogwarts told her she was going to fast. Once she was going at a crawl she could see it, the leaves of the trees turning brown, and the level of the pond dropping slowly. Then the leaves started to fall, and the stream feeding the pond dried up. Finally, the outward stream dried up as the water froze over. She stared with awe at her own inner landscape in the depths of winter.

Daphne’s voice jerked her out of her reflection, “Harry you were brilliant when you were trying to explain what I needed to do, but looking at Tracey’s face I wish it was Hogwarts that was teaching me.”

“I’m sorry that I don’t have centuries of experience teaching people how to do this.”

“It’s ok, but I think that this is the first time she’s got it. I’ve tried to explain it before.”

“With that look of awe on her face I’d say she has. You looked just like that when you found your flower.”

Tracey opened her eyes as she gave into the fact that she probably wouldn’t be able to do that again while they were talking.

“When did you get here?” she asked.

“Oh, about half an hour to an hour ago. Minerva and Hermione are both exploring the library that’s just down the hall and Lavender and Parvati are talking about the rooms and the view out of the window while doing each other’s hair. But I got here just after curfew finished.”

“I’m not sure of the time because my watch has stopped.”

“Tempus, it’s half past 8.” Daphne casts the tempus spell to find out the time.

“Oh that’s a useful spell, do you know how it works?” Hogwarts asks.

“Sorry, no, it’s one of the charms that my father made sure I knew before I came back to school this year. Apparently, it’s very important to know exactly how late you are to something.”

“But how? How did it take that long without me noticing?”

“It’s because you found stillness inside you child. Once you found stillness your magic could settle and form into a shape that you’d recognise. This is also one of the reasons why house-elves can’t travel the dream on their own, as they don’t have their own magic it can never still when they do, they can only hold it down and release it to do what they need to. It makes them very strong and very weak at the same time, as they can channel as much magic as they need to cast their spells, but they are also extraordinarily susceptible to disruptions of the magic around them. On earth, they also have to seriously restrict the amount of magic they expel otherwise they suffocate due to lack of magic. When we rescued them shortly before Rome marched on Britain, their condition explained why we occasionally had otherwise healthy magical babies die within seconds of being born, or if a mage was attending once the mage left.

“Anyway, the elves are setting up for breakfast now, so you should take yourself back to The Nest and then try to come back using that technique. You should have the privacy you need for this, as these classrooms are in the unused wing on the 3rd floor. While you’re doing that, I’ll let Hermione and Minerva know about breakfast and suggest that she accompanies you all to the Great hall, as there have been some seating changes.”

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Tracey slipped into the great hall and took her seat at the Slytherin table, looking slightly wistfully as the other houses all mixed freely now. The first year Moody being the only exception amongst the Slytherins sitting next to a first year Gryffindor and opposite the three Ravenclaws from the meditation club. Not that she blamed her, Draco and his, well his father’s lackeys had done a good job of isolating her from the first years before Professor Vector took over, and even now it only took a couple of harsh words and a veiled threat to keep it that way. Merlin she was looking forward to getting out of that hellhole.

“Where did you get to this morning?” Notts cultured voice brought her attention back to the table and she struggled to tamp her magic down as it rose with her surprise. Merlin, it’s wrong that someone like Nott had a voice like that.

“I went to the library”, she answered honestly, if misleadingly. Only keeping from laughing due to who she was talking to as she appreciated Ravenclaw’s subtle genius in giving her level that name.

Nott harrumphed and turned back to his breakfast.

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Minerva led the young warlocks to the Great Hall after looking over the changes to their uniforms, which consisted of gold piping where their house colours used to be along with a crossed sword and dagger below the Hogwarts Crest.

When she entered she stopped for a moment as she saw a new table set out in front of the teachers table. Rather than metal plates this one had places settings of white porcelain with the Hogwarts crest in the centre. Arrayed in at the front of the table were different foodstuffs. Pausing for only a moment, she led the 5 students to the new table.

“May I have your attention please.”

The last few conversations that hadn’t already stopped came to a halt.

“I would like to present to you the rediscovered Hogwarts house. Through the use of the techniques they learnt in the meditation club they found their way to a location in The Library. According to the charter their house was automatically changed to be the Hogwarts house.” Ron looked up with a slightly jealous look on his face, which was wiped away with her next statement.

“As members of this new house they have a couple of new classes that they need to study in addition to the standard Hogwarts curriculum. Be aware that this will apply to everyone that qualifies to join this new house, there are no exceptions.”

With that she went to the teachers table and took her seat, and needed to converse with Albus about where she’d been yesterday and last night. She could honestly say that she’d been in the Library, and that she’d show Irma how to get there later. Halfway through eating and being interrogated by Albus an owl delivered a note to her. Reading the note and the included letter she smiled, and added a note to the bottom of the inner letter before making her excuses and going to talk to Tracey.

A few days later, both she and Irma publicly joined the meditation club as beginners.


	14. Chaper 13

A lonely girl sits crying quietly in the Library, what was supposed to be a time of fun and learning has turned into the loneliest period of her young life. Her friend from the photography club finds here there and sits with her. With a great mental effort he reaches into his back and pulls out a black journal before sliding it across the table.

“Here, I think you need this more than I do. I hope it keeps you company when you can’t be with the rest of us.”

“Thank you. I hope that I can become part of the Hogwarts house.”

“I’m sure you will, but in the mean-time he’ll keep you company same as he did me when I was suffering from homesickness.”

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Hogwarts, Harry decided, was a slave driver. Every evening between 8 and 9 they had lessons on how to control their magic while not changing the level that they held it at. The other three seemed to find this much easier than Harry and Hermione did. But she supposed that this was down to the fact that they had so much more magic than they did. Currently they were learning to sew of all things. Only they weren’t allowed to use their hands or their wands. She cursed as her needle fired into the wall again, her control momentarily slipping before Hogwarts sharp voice made her bring it back. Being knocked out by Hogwarts was worse than being hit with Filch’s whacker. She grabbed another matchstick from the pile, transfigured it into a needle the right size after only 4 tries this time and threaded it after 8 tries. To cap it all her period had started yesterday so she had to watch her change as well. Fuck, she meant fudge. She screams in frustration, throwing her work to the floor.

“Feel better young one?”

“I do thank you.” Harry was surprised to find that she actually did.

“Very good, you’re all doing very well for total beginners. You especially Harry, as I know that you’ve got more going on than just the control. You can all take a break as it’s nearly time for you to go to bed.”

“Thank Merlin.” Breathed Daphne with feeling.

“You said it” and variations on that came from the other three.

“Give it few months and you’ll have a hard time remembering how hard you found these first weeks young ones. Tomorrow your first lesson is in the armoury. You will also be collecting your new wands, so I need you to leave your current wands in your quarters. You will only be using these wands for all of your lessons going forward. As we are lacking a suitably trained instructor I will teach you what I can here and then correct you as best as I can while you’re there.

“Now off to bed with you all.”

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The class in the Armoury was as hard as Hogwarts had promised it would be, and apart from Charms and Transfiguration, the rest of their classes seemed easy in comparison. In those two classes they felt like they were back in first year, as they no longer had wands with a core, instead they just had milled lengths of wood that were the shape of a wand. Harry dropped first the Flying, and then the cooking club in order to make time to keep instructing the basic meditation class. He was heartened to see that Hermione had dropped hers too, as had the others. They were sure that they would get used to their new schedules, but at the moment it was more than a little daunting. Fortunately, Hogwarts took over for the intermediate meditation class. However, what used to be the intermediate class was now the Advanced class, and Tracy had joined Susan and Neville in that class.

Funnily enough, there was a test for getting into the intermediate class, and that was to actually get there once you’d been told how. Hannah, Ginny, Luna, and Dudley had done it in short order, leaving Nicole in the basic class along with Minerva, Madam Pince, and the students that were dealing with Occlumency issues. Harry thought that Nicole had been ready to move up for a while, but she seemed to have some sort of mental block that prevented her from moving up. She was also starting to look drawn, as if the stress of not following her friends was piling on top of everything else. Everyone in the Hogwarts house tried to be there for her, but they were all exhausted by the extra work not being able to use their matched wands caused them. Oh, the work wasn’t any harder, it’s just that they were needing to work out how to get their magic to flow through the wood without forcing it.

Once Hermione worked out that sewing outside the dream was easier, and made sewing in the dream easier too, they all had various bits of sewing and embroidery with them everywhere they went.

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It was the beginning of December that found the Hogwarts house sitting in the freezing cold waiting for the Slytherin and Gryffindor game to kick off. It was set to be a brilliant game as both teams were made of almost entirely new people. They had been told they had to attend as they’d missed the home game with Team B a few weeks ago, and were also not participating in other social activities. Harry had almost snapped at the Headmaster when he’d made the demand at breakfast, but Hermione’s hand had stopped him. Fortunately his brilliant Hermione had come up with a solution, and they were all sitting with a jar full of bluebell flames in front of them, needles flashing away as they waited for the game to start.

Madam Hooch came out with the two teams following her, and they greeted each other. She placed the balls on the floor as the teams took their starting places and released the snitch, and then the bludgers. With a golden glow the snitch shot off leaving a sparkling trail behind it clearly indicating it’s location. He nudged Hermione and nodded towards the trail, and she nodded back to say that she could see it too. The game was then on, and he found that it quickly became boring when he knew exactly where the snitch was, he couldn’t even summon up the fake enthusiasm as while the chasers and beaters were running a good game, just knowing that he could end it in seconds took any fun out of it.

He put more and more attention into his sewing as the spiders web that he was starting to sew grew the outline of a pair of rose leaves to anchor it on, and then there was pain in his shoulder as a bludger careened out of the sky and smashed straight into his wand shoulder. Instinctively lashing out with his magic, the bludger turned into so much dust. The second one that was heading straight after the first didn’t even leave dust behind as the rest of the Hogwarts house lashed out and obliterated it too. Before Harry could pull his wits together to get his metamorphic abilities to start putting the bones back together, Lockhart looms over him.

“Everyone stand back, I know how to deal with this. It’s a simple charm to mend broken bones.”

“No, don’t give me an hour and I’ll be as good as new.”

“Never mind my boy, Lockhart is here. Ossio Dispersimus”

The pain of the broken bones vanished, but so did Harry’s ability to move his arm, and his sense of the bones.

Harry ground out through gritted teeth, “You blithering idiot, my bones have gone. Professor McGonagall permission to leave before I lose my temper.”

Minerva rounds on the headmaster “I’ll take him to Pomfrey, you deal with Lockhart. He’s now on his last chance, if he screws up one more time, I’m getting in a substitute and if they deem that his books are unsuitable for the defence class, you and anyone else that voted to allow him to be a teacher will be refunding all of the students 14G for the books. That’s 3,000G that you’re going to have to find from somewhere.”

Minerva stalks off after trying to soften her tone, but still snapping at Harry, “Come on then Mr Potter.”

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Madam Pomfrey was absolutely livid at Lockhart’s impulsive desire to prove himself, so Harry had to sit patiently while she ran Diagnostic after Diagnostic on his shoulder.

“I have some good news and some bad news Mr Potter. The good news is that you don’t need to go to St Mungo’s, a dose of skelegrow and position charms overnight will be enough to regrow your missing bones. He’s just lucky he missed your ribcage. As it stands you’re going to have your Clavicle, Scapula, and Humerus regrown overnight. If it was just one of those, you’d be fine in the morning. As it stands you’re going to need to have the joint immobilised for two weeks, and I’ll need to manipulate it in the evenings. You also need to minimise how much you use your other hand as well. If I hadn’t seen you sewing, I’d be keeping you from classes for that time. As it stands you are not to use a wand, or lift anything heavier than a goblet of water for that time.”

Harry felt like he could feel Hogwarts amusement, even though she couldn’t talk to anyone on this level.

“One last thing Mr Potter, you must stay as a boy for this entire time.”

Instinctively he started to shift only to stop as a searing pain shot through his shoulder, stopping the shift using the skills she’d learnt on her period, she started to cry as her body suddenly felt wrong, and alien; and she felt trapped. It was then that it hit home just how much she now thought of herself as a girl that was occasionally a boy and resolved to put more effort into becoming comfortable in both forms in the future, beyond the urgings of her mind-healer.

“It will be ok, it’s only two weeks, and you’ve had lots of practice at doing stuff without your hands. Before we start the skelegrow, I need you to take a couple of nutrient potions to provide your body with enough nutrients for the potion to work without compromising your other bones. Take this one now, and I’ll give you the other one at dinner.”

A couple of hours later Harry was trying to take his mind off of the taste of the potion that still lingered in the back of her mouth. And of the fact that he was stuck in this stupid body, with a voice that wouldn’t stay the same for more than 15 minutes. She couldn’t even cry properly. He screamed a wordless cry of frustration again, and went back to trying to do his homework with just his magic, as using his left hand was not only painful, but also illegible. Which was proving far more challenging than the sewing was. The doors to the Infirmary slammed open and the headmaster stalked in, an unreadable expression on his face, followed by Professor Babbling and Minerva. Between them a lifelike statue of Colin from first year came, posed as if he was just taking a photo. When they levitated it onto a bed, Harry realised that just maybe it wasn’t a statue.

The headmaster prised the camera from Colin’s hands and opened the back of it. Dust fell out instead of the film. A grim expression with something more came over the headmasters face.

“What does this mean?”

“It means Minerva, that the chamber of secrets has indeed been opened once more.”

“Once more?”

“Yes, I was only a transfiguration teacher at the time, and Headmaster Dippet was just happy that the attacks stopped after Miss Warrington died. This was before I faced Gellert you understand, so my word carried no more weight than any other.”

“We try to find the chamber, and see what we can do to get some Mandrake solution. If nothing else, I know that Pomona is growing some this year, as the northern year for them. I dread to think what we’d have had to do if this happened last year or next year.”

“What would we have had to do?”

“Probably sent Pomona and her newt students out into the forest to see if they could find any mature mandrakes from the previous year with Hagrid for security.”

“Fine, we’ll send a message to St Mungo’s and see what we can find. Should we call in the Ministry?”

“No! First of all, what do you think would happen? Last time it took someone dying to bring in anyone, and that was the DMLE, when what we need is the DMCC, and they’re full of traditionalists that love hunting, but hate risks. So what do we tell them? A student has been petrified? When they ask who and they find out it’s ‘only a muggle-born’, suddenly they won’t have any resources available.” He laughs humourlessly, the stress of his history clear on his face. Harry stays as still and quiet as a mouse so that they don’t stop because they noticed young ears.

“That’s what I tried last time. That’s why I hate all of them, and I wish they’d just killed each other off during the war.” He says vehemently and then appears to realise what he just said.

“Sorry about that, I let my emotions run away with me. I fear that we’re on our own here, unless you fancy the likes of MacNair running around with his axe and ‘I was imperioused’ sob story.” With that he turns and leaves.

Pomfrey, Minerva and Babbling all look at his retreating back as if they don’t recognise the person that’s just walked out through the door.

“You know, I never realised that all of that had affected him so much.” Pomfrey ventured.

“I don’t think any of us did, he’s such a private individual.

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Albus wasn’t sure what came over him in there. Yes he was sleeping better, but his Occlumency was going to pot. He’d never had an outburst like this since he and Gellert had started practicing when they found a book in the library in second year. At least he had a chance to deal with the problem once and for all.

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Lockhart opened the package that arrived for him at breakfast in the privacy of his own room. Unwrapping a bronze bowl, he removed a small gong and striker, a book, and the singing stick for the bowl. Running the stick around the inside of the bowl, it takes him a few minutes to produce the constant tone that it was designed for. He then says one long drawn out word.

“Ommmmm…”


	15. Chaper 14

_Sometimes we need to remember that things that are little more than a nuisance to us are a deadly danger to the children under out care, as well as their wider society as a whole._

_Excerpt from Rowana Ravenclaw’s diary found in the Sanctury_

* * *

Petunia stretched languidly as she woke up with her favourite person in the world curled around her. Life was good, she’d had no reason to delve the dream since she’d given Dudley the magic he needed to go to Hogwarts. With just the two of them and Ceeley there wasn’t much to do around the house, and they’d managed scrape enough money together to buy Ceeley a new 486DX2 with Microsoft windows and office. She was now taking some correspondence courses for home schooling, as an adult that had fallen through the cracks in the 70’s. The computer was situated in the dining room as the living room was still populated with elflings along with Aityo every day. Her English was getting better every day, though it was apparent that there were new concepts that she wasn’t familiar with.

Interest in Muggle tours had dried up but she’d been able to get in contact with the person that did the runes for the expanded bags and together they’d designed a plastic tag that could be manufactured into a paper bag. These provided a one use expanded carrier bag, and she’d started selling those with a basic logo to the shops in Diagon alley at 10 sickles for 500 with the muggle tours logo, 1 galleon if they wanted them with their own black and white logo, or more if they wanted colours. She’d also started getting interest in France for the bags, and a couple of muggle-born French had approached her with the idea of buying her branded bracelets and bags. She still got a couple of London Tours a week, and she’d had one more load of Aurors do the full course. She figured that she’d have more business over the holidays with families wanting to look around and tourists from other countries too.

The Grangers had pulled back into friends rather than the close friendship they’d shared last year. They’d taken on another Muggle-born as an assistant and now that they weren’t having any accidental magic they were just using it for their daily lives outside of their business. She supposed it was how a lot of witches and wizards were, but it wasn’t something she could understand. Having Lily come home every holiday and share stories of the wonders of magic, coupled with Karen’s love of mythology and they were finding new and wonderful things about the world every week. Due to the fact that there were no public libraries in the wizarding world, they’d spent a lot of time at the British library, or the local one just working together. 

Their research into folklore was starting to pay dividends, as they felt like they were close to working out why iron shows up so consistently in history when used against the supernatural. Whether it’s starfall metal, or some other description of one of the rare found sources. One of the main clues actually came from Ceeley’s school work, as her science class did a lecture on stars and said that the build-up of iron was the death knell of stars. They were still looking for an understandable book on this, as all the books they’d found so far used math to explain what was happening that was too advanced for any of them.

Glancing at the clock, she remembered that it was a Sunday and so neither of them needed to get up today, so she rolled over and snuggled back into Karen and went back to sleep.

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Harry thought he’d bourn up well under the taunts from Draco and a couple of Ravenclaws about his sewing and inability to use his hands properly. But as he was sitting in Charms waiting for the class to start he realised that perhaps he wasn’t.

“Hey scarhead, how comes you’re doing such a sissy thing as sewing?”

Had he already forgotten that she spent more time as a girl than the boy she was currently stuck as?

“I mean, it’s not exactly hard work, otherwise we wouldn’t leave it to the women to do.”

Draco somehow managed to ignore the venomous looks coming from most of the girls in the room, but it was the last straw after nearly a week of needling.

“Fine, if you think it’s so easy, why don’t you prove it.” He snarled

“I will!”

Harry levitated over a swatch of cloth and chucked him a box of matches with thread wound around it, “Just remember you’re only allowed to use the levitation charm and you have to make your own needles.”

“My, my, this sounds like a great idea. Everyone please put your books away, today’s lesson has just become about fine control. Do take your supplies back Mr Potter, I will ask one of the house-elves to bring the supplies we need.” He calls for an elf and askes them to fetch a box of matches for each student, a swatch of fabric and bundles of different coloured thread for them too.

“While we’re waiting I will work through what Mr Malfoy was alluding to, and is remarkably simple once you know the right charms. Though they are good for everyone to know, not just women.”

He transfigures a piece of parchment into a swatch of fabric, and conjures a needle and thread.

“Now we have the charm for threading a needle, then we have a charm for doing a straight stitch, for doing a back stitch, and for doing embroidery, hemming, and more.” As he names each process he demonstrates the charm for that process.

“Now, these charms blur the line between Charms and Transfiguration, can anyone that’s not in the Hogwarts house tell me why?”

There’s absolute silence until Neville nervously puts his hand up.

“Yes Mr Longbottom?”

“Is it because it requires visualisation to do anything useful with it?”

“Well done, 10 points to Gryffindor. That’s it exactly, along with a lot of the crafting charms, the sewing charms make the needle and thread do what you visualise. In fact, if you’re very skilled with the spells you don’t even need the needle.” With that he vanishes the needle and repeats the spells with just the thread. It looked like the thread came alive and just wiggled it’s way into the fabric in the design that he wanted.

“Now this is very different from what Hogwarts house 2nd years have been doing. Instead of using the crafting spells they are instead only using the first-year spell that Mr Weasley had so much trouble with. The levitation spell. Now the way that they’re doing it is far harder than I’m going to ask you to do, for the moment, and I’ll demonstrate.”

With that he casts the levitation spell twice, once on the needle and once on the thread. Leaving the needle stationary, he carefully threads the needle with the thread then cancels the charm on the thread. He then drops the charm on the thread and recasts it on the fabric. With his tongue stuck out of the side of his mouth he holds the fabric stationary and starts to move the needle and sew a line much slower than the dedicated charm did, but still at a reasonable speed.

“Hmm, this is actually more challenging than I thought it would be. I must be out of practice.”

Cancelling the charms he starts again, this time holding the needle and threading it, before holding the fabric and sewing it at a much faster rate than before.

“As you can see, I’ll be allowing you to hold one item with your hands, and only work with the other item.”

Looking at Draco, he adds, “Anyone that fails to make two stitches will be doing remedial classes with me in the evenings until they’ve successfully made a pouch with their name and the outline of their house logo on it. As I rather enjoy the ambience and don’t wish to spend my free time closeted in a classroom we’ll be doing it for an hour after dinner every day in the main hall.”

Draco looks ill with that, and his expression falls even further at Flitwick’s next addition, “As this is an area that we don’t normally touch on, I will be doing the same class with all of the other years except first year, and I’ll let them know that I’m grateful to you for bringing such an important aspect of spellcasting to my attention.”

Indicating the supplies that the elves had left on his desk while they were watching his demonstration, “Well, everyone collect your supplies, and Do not get up from your seats, this is all about control.”

For the members of the Hogwarts house this was much easier than the task they’d been getting proficient with. For everyone else, only around ¾ of the class managed to do two stitches by the end of the class, and all of them were more just where ever the needle had managed to go through the fabric than actual stitches. Unfortunately for Ron, Seamus, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, they either didn’t manage one stich or failed to thread the needle.

“Oh good, I’m going to have some company while I’m brushing up on my own skills. I’ll see you five at dinner time. Class dismissed.”

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A week later Harry was allowed to change forms again. Neville, Susan, and Tracy had all joined the Hogwarts house, and so Harry no longer had the evening control lessons with Hogwarts as she deemed their control sufficient for the moment. Draco had been joined with around a Dozen other students from the rest of the school, with a couple of NEWT level students looking at him murderously as they had to do the whole thing without moving their wands, and they were expected to carry on a conversation with Flitwick as well. 

Harry, Hemione, Lavender, Parvati, and Daphne had just sat down with the chatting circle when the tables and benches started vanishing. Lockhart stepped up to the edge of the Teachers platform and called out to the hall, “The headmaster has given me permission to start a duelling club, the first session will be starting in 10 minutes, here in the great hall. I will be ably assisted by Professor Snape, potions master extraordinaire.”

Harry flashed into a boy with frustration, “Oh, hell no! I’ve just been released from one evening class, there’s no way I’m staying for another lesson by this fool. Would anyone mind if I quickly find out if there’s somewhere we can go to have our chatting circle in peace?”

With only a couple of objections he dashed out of the hall and touched a crest to go to The Library.

“Hogwarts, sorry to interrupt.”

“Yes, young warlock?”

“Would you happen to know somewhere that we could have our chatting circle in peace tonight?”

“I’d say you could use my audience hall, but it’s more than a little cluttered at the moment. However, yes… She did do that didn’t she. Ok, my Audience hall also doubles as a magical classroom that can provide whatever the teacher needs, so I’ll set it up as a, let’s see, mead hall, no, sultan’s palace, no, I know, a roman villa with a central fire. Head back to the Main hall and I’ll open an entrance to the room from the corridor outside the main hall.”

Harry returned to the circle just as other students were starting to file into the hall for the club. Apparently it had been advertised in the common rooms for a few days, and there were enough students that weren’t disillusioned with Lockhart that it was a viable club. He then lead the group into the… Roman villa, with white stone pillars holding up a roof. An intricate mosaic inlayed on the floor. Around the room were low long chairs with resting cushions situated around low tables, with bowls of finger foods appearing as they looked around. There were only a few wooden walls up between the pillars, the rest seeming to have been taken down and stored somewhere revealing a magnificent landscape to one side and an absolutely stunning view of the sea from a cliff top Everyone just stopped and gaped at the scene in front of them. Hermione turned around and checked the door actually lead back to Hogwarts, which it did. Though the door appeared to be part of a stone building in the same style with shuttered windows.”

The door opened behind them, and Hermione caught a glimpse of a sleeping chamber where the way to Hogwarts was. Hogwarts herself walked out looking much less solid than she did normally, and wearing a white toga trimmed with purple.

“Welcome to one of the homes I’ve owned in my life. For those that don’t know, I am Hogwarts I bid you greetings to my humble abode and I ask that you take your rest and repast here in safety. For once we have shared salt and bread you will be as family until you depart mine roof.”

A platter with small loaves of black bread surrounding a bowl of sea salt then levitated out of the room behind her.

Millicent was actually the first to recover her composure and spoke up for everyone, “My apologies Lady, but I do not know of this custom. Would you be willing to correct my ignorance so that we may properly respect your greeting?”

“Certainly child, simply take a loaf in your hands and break it in half, then take a pinch of salt and sprinkle it over both halves of the bread. If it was just the two of us you would then hand one half back to me. Once you’ve done that you say the words ‘With bread and salt I become as family and will stand with you while I am under this roof.’ By doing so you would be acknowledging that you have guest rights, and also that you have an obligation to help protect the house if we were attacked.”

Millicent was then the first to take the bread and say the phrase, as each person did the same Hogwarts nodded to them. Once the last had done so, Hogwarts then said, “Be welcome and enjoy the feast I have provided. I fear that I cannot remain as I have other duties to attend to. But if you need anything else just call.”

Before she could step back to the sleeping chambers Hermione asked, “How do we get back to the school?”

With a tinkling laugh Hogwarts says, “Why, open the door and walk through.”

With that she steps back through the door and closes it behind her. Quickly Hermione follows her and wrenches open the door to reveal a corridor with the tapestry of a man that appeared to be trying to teach some trolls to dance. Pulling her head back in she walked around the rest of the house and back to the door.

“But, how?”

Harry takes her arm and leads her to a seat, prompting everyone else to do so, “I don’t know Hermione, I’m just treating it like being a magical Holodeck.”

Hermione’s mind grabs onto that idea and grasps it like a drowning man to a piece of flotsam.


	16. Chaper 15

While everyone was chatting and experimenting with the seats and food, Millicent sidled over to Daphne, “Greengrass.”

“Bulstrode.”

“Do you mind if I as you a straight question or two?”

“You can ask.”

“What is the library?”

Daphne laughs a genuine laugh, “You know, I think you’re actually the first person to ask that. The Library is the third part of Hogwarts.”

“What do I need to know in order to get there?”

“You need to know how to visualise and control your magic.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“But I’ve been doing that for years. Mother was fed up with all the accidental magic, what with 4 of us in the family, so she taught us the beginnings of occlumency so that we could feel when our magic was going out of control. I remember her ruefully telling my older sister that she wasn’t sure if knowing that the magic we now did was deliberate was better than accidental magic or not.”

“Well, all you need to do now is use that knowledge, just don’t do it after 8pm, I don’t want you to die. Oh, and Professor McGonagall will need a permission slip if you join the meditation club. By the way, what happened to your siblings?”

Millicent goes a little pink, “They had to go to the ministry school in Wales, I’m actually here on a scholarship as I managed to learn enough from my oldest sister to pass the Scholarship exam.”

“Huh, well I didn’t even know either of those existed.”

“Yes, well Binns is a terrible teacher. If it wasn’t for the prestige of going here, and the fact that I’m a pure-blood, I’d have probably asked Mother to transfer to the Ministry school last year. I think a couple of kids did at that.”

“You should tell the Deputy Headmistress, as I know she’s been the driving force to the few changes that we’ve seen recently.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not, just come to one of the beginner meditation classes and talk to her after the club. Or, wait a few weeks and then she’ll be in the intermediate classes, and you can catch her in the library.”

“What do you mean wait a few weeks?”

“Both she and Madam Pince joined the club at the same time, but Minerva is progressing much faster than Madam Pince. I think she’s practicing every spare moment that she has, and I don’t blame her.”

“But she’s so…” Millicent spreads her hands trying to indicate what she means when she can’t fine the word.

“Intimidating?”

“Yes, intimidating.”

“She has to be, we found that there are two types of magic done with focuses, structured and unstructured. Charms, runes and rituals are all structured magic, so what you cast is what you get. Unstructured magic is based on visualisation and intent more than the spells that you cast. So imagine what could happen if someone fired a stinging hex at someone that was trying to, say turn a matchstick into a needle.”

“Wouldn’t it just fail?”

Looking around, Daphne pulls a chicken bone over to her and transfigures into matchstick, no longer aware of just how hard doing such a task is supposed to be, after sewing windlessly for a month and needing to transfigure her own needles this felt effortless.

“Ok, so we have a matchstick, and when you cast the spell you need to visualise the needle you want to transfigure. Now if you get distracted, you could put too much oomph into it and make it massive.” She demonstrates by making a three foot long needle.

“Or you could add spikes.” It shrinks down to a normal needle, then mimes catapulting into the air as needle like spikes sprout from it.

“Or you could turn it into the wrong substance” It changes again and then a bright silver is visible momentarily before it explodes in a flash of fire. Hermione comes over to see what’s going on, Millicent’s mouth just hung open like a fish.

“Hey Daphne, I heard a bang over here.”

“Oh, I was just showing Bulstrode why Minerva needs to be so strict in her classes.”

“Let me guess you did the transfigure into potassium demonstration.”

“Caesium, but yes.”

“You know we’re only supposed to do that sort of thing in the Armoury. And did you forget to use your wand?”

“Bad Daphne, now make her another needle, and put a red rose in the eye.”

“Yes Hermione.” She said with a fake sulk. But she drew her wand and summoned another chicken bone, then actually used the spells to do the transfiguration, before handing a stunned Millicent a needle with a tiny rose bush in the eye.

“But how?” Millicent finally manages to say.

“You know how McGonagall said that we had a couple of extra classes?”

“Yes?”

“What she didn’t tell you is that we also had an evening session where we had to do the sewing that you see us all doing, while also carrying on a conversation with Hogwarts. Or that all our lessons currently are geared towards making us learn how to use our magic consciously and prevent unconscious and emotional uses of it. To the point where she made us leave our wands in or bedrooms and had us pick the wand blank that reacted the least to us. Those are the only wands we’re allowed to use. The only person that doesn’t seem to have had a problem adjusting to it is Neville. It’s the reason why I’ve gone from the top of the class to middle of the pack in charms and transfiguration.”

“Don’t forget that it was you and Harry doing muggle schooling after hours that added even more to our workload.”

“Don’t remind me, Hogwarts was very excited about chemistry and physics, less so with Maths and English, but she’s thrown those in there too. Now part of our class is doing chemistry experiments in the Armoury. I swear that she’s forgotten that we’re still children in her excitement to learn new things. I mean, I know I’m bright and was looking to move ahead a year, but we’re going too fast for me.”

“My apologies young warlock, I was unaware of just how fast I was pushing you, as I don’t remember my own youth. Would you be able to show me the recommended learning schedule at some point, and leave it out where I can refer to it, and I’ll try to temper my enthusiasm to match it.”

All three of them jump as Hogwarts just appears next to them.

“I know it sometimes seems as though I know everything that’s going on in the school, but I really don’t, only what I’m paying attention to.”

“Oh, and I need to get you all back to the Great Hall, as something’s happened.”

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The something turned out to be Draco being petrified in a corridor near the Slytherin common room. As a result the school was going to be closed over Christmas so that the Department of Magical Creature Control could search the school. Dumbledore wanted to keep it open, but he was overruled by everyone else except Snape. 

The weeks leading up to Christmas slowed down enough for the Hogwarts house that they were able to take up their clubs again. Millicent joined the Advanced meditation club almost immediately, and Minerva managed to join the intermediate club. Mysteriously everyone in the History club joined the meditation club too at the same time as Millicant. When she found out Hogwarts actually groaned, guessing just who told them, and just why they’d all joined.

Lucius Malfoy stormed into the school and demanded all sorts of things until he saw Draco and Colin. Then his face blanched, and Pomfrey heard him muttering something like “It can’t be you, it has to be a mistake. If it’s not you where is it?”

He then left, presumably to grieve at home

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Petunia had just sat down for breakfast when an owl tapped on the window in the dining room. She sighed and went to stand up, but Karen beat her to it and let the owl in holding two letters. She thanked the owl and gave it an owl treat and indicated the water bowl if it wanted to rest, but it flew straight out the window again. Opening the letter she sighed and wordlessly handed it to Karen while she checked the second letter. Checking the time she stood up and went to the phone in the front room and dialled Dan and Emma.

A few rings later Emma picked up, “Granger residence how can I help you?”

“Hi Emma, it’s Petunia.”

“Oh, hi. We haven’t spoken to you for a while. How are you doing?”

Petunia responded to the social niceties even though she wanted to get straight to the point, “We’re doing ok, how’s things going your end?”

“Oh, we’re doing great, we’re just getting ready to go to a Dentistry convention in Athens, I’m glad that Hermione’s at a boarding school as she can just stay there for Christmas.”

“Funny you should say that, they’re closing the school for an inspection over Christmas, so I was calling to tell you that she’d be home for Christmas.”

“Oh blast, we’ve had it booked for weeks now. Listen, could you look after her please? We can send you some money to get Christmas presents with.”

“Uh…”

“Ok, cool, so that’s arranged I’ll send it over shortly. I’ve got to go.”, then she hangs up.

“Actually, we had plans for Christmas, so I was going to ask if you could take Harry, and then see if the Weasleys could take Dudley” Petunia said to the phone.

She then heard the Floo chime and Karen go to answer it. 

Trailing behind she got there in time to hear Molly asking Karen if they could look after Ginny over Christmas, as they had already arranged to visit Charlie, and Bill was meeting them there.

“I’m sorry Molly but we’ve already got plans.”

“Don’t worry Karen, our plans have already been screwed over, so what’s another head.” She says despondently.

“Ok, we can take Ginny, what’s going on with the others?”

“Muriel has a couple of spare bedrooms so she said she’d put the boys up for Christmas.”

“My condolences to them if even half of what you’ve said to them is true.”

Petunia speaks up again, “At least you asked and were willing to accept our reply.”

“Never mind that, I’m just thankful that you’ve agreed.”

“Well I’ll see you for tea at some point. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Actually, do you know anyone that does pure iron pots and pans?”

“No, I don’t sorry. But I do know that some potion ingredients are kept in pure iron containers as they’re so reactive to magic that they lose their potency in days if they’re not.”

“Great, do you think you could send me the details of one I could talk to in order to see about sourcing some cookware?”

“Sure, and if I get a chance I’ll ask them for where they get their storage boxes from.”

They’d just got back to the table when the Floo went again.

“Luna?” Petunia said

“No bet.”

They both went to answer the Floo, and yes it was Xeno’s face that appeared.

“Yes, we can look after Luna, our Christmas plans have been ruined already.” Karen pre-empted him.

“Oh, great, you knew what I was calling about. Maybe you have a touch of seer blood.”

“No such luck, we received the letters today, and then got lumped with Ginny and Hermione.”

“Sorry to hear that. If I wasn’t in the middle of Russia I’d offer to take them all for you. What were you planning to do anyway?”

“We were planning on flying down to Alexandria and trying to find out if any of the library survived on the magical side.”

“Oh, well, no need to change your plans then, Luna has a reporters pass and our whole family have a generational tenure there, it’s where we found the pictures of the Crumple Horned Snorkack, of course we couldn’t read the writing so we let our little Sweet-pea name it.”

“Oh? What’s it supposed to look like?”

“It looks like a big white bear and it has a big horn on it’s snout.”

“I’ve seen one” Petunia says grimly.

“Oh, how wonderful, would you be able to show me where when I get back?”

“I’m afraid I can’t, as it’s not in this world.”

“Oh, I am sorry to hear that.” He looks down at something.

“I’m really sorry, but I’m about to be cut off, as international Floo calls use powder by the handful and I’ve just run out. I’ll send you a letter of introduction and send Luna a letter asking her to send you a letter with her magical signature.”

The Floo fades out while he’s talking.

Karen and Petunia stand up and dust themselves off and just look at each other for a long moment. Then they both screamed in happiness and danced around the room.

True to his word, a few days later an exhausted Bustard delivered a letter of introduction from Xeno. A day after that they got a letter from Luna and Harry. Luna’s was the promised letter with magical signature, while Harry was asking if Daphne Greengrass could come and stay with them so that they could take her muggle shopping to replace the stuff her father had destroyed. They sent back a letter saying that as long as she had permission from her parents it would be fine. Though they were going to be going to the Library of Alexandria for most of the Holiday with Hermione, Luna and Ginny.

She received a letter from Lady Greengrass thanking her for taking Daphne, as her father could be difficult at the best of times, she also included a few galleons to give to Daphne when she arrived.


	17. Chaper 16

Cancelling their flights was fairly easy, and they used the money from that to upgrade their double room to a 4 bedroom family suite. With Luna’s press pass, buying the portkey cut through a lot of red tape that existed. Apparently there were tensions between magical Britain and The Ottoman Empire due to ongoing tomb excavation in the valley of the kings because the Ottomans claimed that they were exceeding their remit, while Gringotts had a contract that states that they were just doing what they were paid to do. The clerk dealing with their portkey application told them that he privately thought that the Ottomans were afraid that someone in Egypt was going to try and follow the muggle example and make Egypt an independent nation on the ICW.

As an aside, Karen asked how muggle transport factored into magical borders, at which point they got some chilling news. Normally it would be fine, as many wizarding nations matched up with their muggle counterparts in Europe. But if you were travelling to somewhere that it didn’t match up with, then you needed to be sure to stay within the muggle areas and not come to the attention of the local law enforcement. Alternatively, you can register your travel plans with the ministry, and it might take a few weeks for your trip to be approved or not.

“Good afternoon, welcome to Globus Mundi Travel.”

“Afternoon. Would we be able to buy a portkey to Alexandria?” Petunia asked

“Certainly, though I must warn you The Ottoman Empire is quite slow these days, so it might take a month to get it sorted.”

Handing over Luna’s letter she says, “We were warned of this in advance, and one of our group has a press pass.”

“Oh, that’s good, I can process this through the ICW then rather than having to deal with them directly then. It should be ready in a few days, a week at the most.” The clerk sounds relieved at being able to deal with the ICW.

Karen asks curiously, “Not to pry, but why is there such a difference in time?”

“Oh, no problem. It’s kind of common knowledge, though the prophet hasn’t done an article on it yet. The Quibbler did a year or so ago. It turns out that the Gringotts contract for excavating some of the new tombs in Egypt may be over-reaching the permission that the Ottomans gave. Rather than arguing with the goblins, the Ottomans are in dispute with our government as the issuing body, and they want to have an Ottoman overseer as well as all treasures found to be turned over to them outside those specified in the contract. If the goblins have a contract, nobody ever argues with them after Venaissin took them to the ICW over a contract, and bankrupted themselves around 60 years ago. They’re now part of France, and they did well to hold out for just over a century longer than their muggle counterparts.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, yes, after the last treaty they were given, they’ve become masters at the language and interpretation of contracts, as they never want a repeat performance. If a goblin ever says that their contract says they can do something, or more importantly doesn’t say they can’t do something, you need to take them at their word unless you are very well versed in law.”

“Is there anything we need to worry about for travelling between the magical and non-magical worlds?” Petunia asks.

“What do you mean?”

“We’re going to be staying in a non-magical hotel.”

“Ah, well in that case if you can bring your muggle passports, I can get those stamped.”

“We’re taking some children with us that were raised in the wizarding world, do they need passports too?”

“They will do, but that’s a simple enough process, they just need one of their parents to come in here or to the main office in the ministry with a recent photograph, preferably a wizarding one, and it can be made up in about an hour. How many people are going with you?”

“Harry, oh no I need to get his passport! Dudley, Luna, Ginny, Daphne, and Hermione. Plus the two of us.”

“Ok, so it’s a large party. I know that Luna already has a passport as you need to have one in order to have an ICW press pass. If you can get a Wizarding photograph of him, I can get one made up in around an hour.”

“Don’t forget that Harry is a Metamorph.” Karen adds.

“Oh, in that case I’ll need to charge you a Galleon for a special passport, and they’ll need to use all of their main and base forms while the photo is taken. That way we can provide an enchanted passport that will show the form that they’re currently in with a small application of magic.”

“Are there any other weird and wonderful exceptions that would probably never come up.”

“Not that I know of. However on the weird end, recognised Magi have unrestricted travel options, and recognised Warlocks are allowed to go through the ICW for all travel requests, and they’re not allowed to be denied for political reasons. No one knows what that actually means, only that it was included in the founding articles of the precursor to the ICW and was included in the ICW charter when they took over. The fact that there’s now only one institution that still exists that can even officially recognise such, that’s Hogwarts, means that it’s very unlikely to ever come up. Fun fact, Scholomance was the last one to disappear from the list around 200 years ago when it’s wards finally fell.”

“Before all of this came up, we were planning on flying out using non-magical transport, would that have caused any problems?” Karen asked

The clerk winces, “That all depends on where you’re going, somewhere like Egypt yes, somewhere like Greece, it depends on if you encounter an Ottoman Auror or a Rebel Auror. For the most part your muggle documentation should be enough proof that you are ok to be there, but it all depends on if the magical government recognises the authority of the muggle government in the area. Be especially careful if you ever travel to India as there’s a couple of purely magical kingdoms there, same as there are in the deep parts of Africa and South America, and they are not at all friendly to the British, or Europeans in general.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, they didn’t take kindly to the attempt we made to follow our muggle counterparts a few hundred years ago, so it’s one of two countries in the world that are completely different from their muggle counterparts.

“Right, well time’s getting on, so as you’ve got such a large party I’m going to need you to depart from here as the larger international portkeys are restricted. If you want to leave your name, we can also put the new passports with the portkey for when you arrive, and the parents of your travellers can also leave their new passports here too.”

“Why’s that?”

“What?”

“Why’s the portkey restricted?”

“Oh, it’s been used as an invasion technique in the past, you’ll probably also need to open all your luggage as well to show that you don’t have any large expansions. If you were taking a tent you could be there for a couple of hours easily, it depends on if they’re going to be awkward or not. The fact that you have someone with a press pass should help a lot though.”

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Apart from needing to get wizarding photographs done, the rest of the term passed quickly. Daphne received a muggle tourguide to Alexandria so that she could see what was going to be around. Lavender and Parvati were both jealous. It also lead to an impromptu story about one of Hogwarts visits to the library.

At one point Neville asked a very interesting question that none of them had thought off before.

“Hogwarts, why can’t we feel when the dream opens up to the armoury or earth?”

“Only just an apprentice Warlock and already walking the path of the Magi. I will need to use a visual aid in order to show you, so we might as well make it a class. Go and gather the Meditation clubs that are interested and I’ll open a door near the great hall again.”

A short while later, McGonagall, Pince, and everyone in the intermediate meditation group, as well as the history club joined Hogwarts and her house in the room. Hogwarts had made a large wall of water with dividers and had a lambs bladder on the floor with a small rock tied to it.

“Be careful children as the water is quite real and will kill you if you get caught in there. Now young Neville asked me why he couldn’t feel the dream of the Armoury or the earth open up, while they could feel it when the rest of the dream opened. In order to understand that you need to understand what the dream actually is. Over my lifetime it has had many names, the sea of magic, the aether, The dream to name a few. All of them try to describe in a few words what it means, but it is only something that can be explained to someone that has experienced it. This was my favourite demonstration and it was designed in Greece shortly before it fell to Rome. Now the wall of water behind me represents the worlds without the barriers between them. If I place this bladder in the bottom you can see that it shoots up to the top. I can change where it stops by adjusting the amount of air in bladder, to make it go up or down, or even stay where it is.

“Now just like life cannot exist in the deep water without air, so life cannot exist without magic. So once we add magic to the water we see that it starts behaving differently.”

A swirling yellow liquid started to come down from the top, mixing evenly with the water, but clearly more dense at the top than at the bottom.

“Now there is something about the sun that degrades magic, and so in the worlds where magic is weaker it can only push through during the window where sunlight is not present.”

In the background a sun appeared at the bottom of the water and shone upwards, where the light touched the yellow water it turned into normal water. Then a series of planets appeared that cast progressively larger shadows until near the top the sunlight is completely occluded. The yellow water now only flowed down through the shadows, and slowly dissipated in the light.

“If we start the motion of the planets now, we can see how the cycle of the dream works.”

The planets start to spin, and the ones at the bottom are revealed to be thin disks, becoming more and more sphere like as they move up. She then places the bladder in the bottom layer and they see how it takes a stuttering route up to the top.

“Now, the dream is actually in sync throughout the realms, so we’ll move on to answer Neville’s question.”

She stops all but the bottom 3 disks from spinning and places the bladder in the fourth layer. As the yellow water mixed through the four layers, the bladder didn’t move anywhere.

“Does this answer your question?”

“I think so, but why do you have that bottom layer, as I presume you put the bladder in the same place as the library.” Neville spoke up.

“Well noticed young warlock. We believe that there is one world beyond the earth, where magic is so weak that nobody has enough magic to even feel the dream. For anyone like us to attempt to go there would be a death sentence more sure than coming to earth is for House-elves. Once you have become in tune with your magic enough that you can control your location in the dream, your body comes to rely on that synchronisation. You use it subconsciously to be stronger, faster, heal, and aid you in tiny ways, even after you’ve separated it from your subconscious desires. In fact, binding or removing our magic is now a death sentence, as we could no more survive without it than we could without our lungs.

“You should all remember this and be aware that any oath or contract on your magic is now akin to an oath on your very life. Never, ever give any hint that you agree to a contract that people are trying to force on you, as the more magical you become the easier your magic finds it to be bound to agreements. This is how the Djinn were bound into service in Arabia, and why the lesser fae are so vindictive. As you get older you will find different ways to avoid being tricked, but the one that most young magi and warlocks use is refusing point blank to agree to anything they haven’t signed in blood. At that point the worst they can do is force your body to sign, which will have almost no impact on your magic.”

She dismisses the wall of water, and is about to dismiss everyone when a thought crosses her mind.

“All this talk of magi and warlocks has made me remember something. Everyone that has joined the Hogwarts house is already accredited as a warlock, I have the Warlock council insignia in the offices of the sanctuary, so you will need to wait until Minerva or the Headmaster can get there to get them, though anyone that recognises the conventions should also recognise the insignia on your uniforms, even though that’s not official recognition.”

“What’s the Warlock council?” Minerva asks

“It’s the world wide council of warlock elders who coordinate defences against fae incursions.” Hogwarts replies puzzled.

Madam Pince speaks up, “It became the international convention of wizards and warlocks in 1498, which then became the international convention of wizards in 1705.”

“How odd, they should still be recognised though, and if they’re not when you finish Hogwarts you’ll be strong enough that you won’t actually need to worry about it if they don’t. Those that become Magi were exempted from any travel restrictions anyway, as not even iron bands could hold us for long if we were really determined, and there’s lots of breakable things around on earth, like countries.

“That’s not to say that we were a law unto ourselves, as there were many ways of stopping us from returning to earth, some of which you’ll learn during your time here.”

This more than anything else galvanised Minerva into resolving to pass the advanced course over Christmas or soon after.

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The Christmas holidays came, and Minerva did indeed make it to the library on her own. She then spent the Christmas one on one with Hogwarts in probably the most gruelling two weeks of her life. In retrospect it probably wasn’t her best idea when she told Hogwarts she wanted to go through the same training that Hogwarts had. That said she had never been more in tune with her magic before. Hogwarts had made her go through every spell that she’d learnt without using a focus to mastery level, even if it came out badly. She didn’t think she’d ever appreciated just how easy her wand made things before now, but she knew that if she ever got it back she’d never take it for granted again. The worst day was the day before the children came back, Hogwarts had her randomly jumping between the library, armoury and nest while also sewing, and she wasn’t allowed to miss a stitch. 

That evening she had to stage a mock war, using primarily transfiguration, in the armoury while also flicking to the nest without touching the crests. Once the dream started in the Armoury she had to move effortlessly between the library and the armoury outside where the crests couldn’t help her and expanded the mock battle to 2 then three realms once earth opened up. She was being pushed so hard that she didn’t even notice that she was doing this during the dream. When dawn arrived Hogwarts called a halt to her punishing exam.

“Well done Minerva, you’ve passed. Restore everything to it’s proper place and then meet me in your office in the Library.”

“UGH! I need sleep, you’ve had me up for a whole day now.”

“You can sleep in an hour if you’re quick with your restoration.”

Minerva hurried off to put everything to rights and managed to get to her office in 20 minutes.

“Congratulations, you’ve passed the wartime training for a warlock, you are now a fully qualified warlock. We’ll need to take it easy for the next 6 months as only time will allow you to become acclimatised to the pressure of the next realm in order for you to progress as safely as possible. That doesn’t mean that your apprenticeship will stop, just that it will be lighter.”

“Wait, apprenticeship?”

“Well, yes, that’s what you asked for when you asked me to put you through the same training I went through. When you’re finished you’ll be an archmagis in your own right.”

“But that’s not what I… I’m too tired to think about this now.”

“It might not be what you intended, but it’s what I understood, and what our magics agreed to when I agreed. Now as the children aren’t fully qualified witches, we need to come up with a grading system to see how they’ve progressed. Those that choose to continue as Warlocks will need to do the same thing you just did to fully qualify, but even if they don’t, by convention they are already warlocks as soon as they successfully travel the first three realms.

“Also, congratulations, you’ve just skipped knitting and weaving, and you’re now going to jump straight to lace making. They’d just invented it before you cut yourselves off from the muggle world, so there should be some books in the library here or in the nest. You can start with a pillow, I think they used a pillow, but by the end of the year I want you doing it with just the bobbins and thread. Now go and get some sleep, the children will be back later.”

Minerva tiredly made her way back to her quarters in The Nest for the first time in two weeks. She was almost there when she was accosted by Albus.

“Minerva! I’ve been looking for you for weeks, where have you been?”

“I’ve been studying in The Library.”

“What could have been so important to study that you were completely unavailable while the DMCC were here, I wasn’t able to get any of my own research done because of it.”

“Well, I figured that one of us needed to be more qualified than the students we’re teaching. And as you’re not taking up that mantle, it’s down to me. Look I’m too tired for this, I’m going to sleep in The Library, send an elf if the castle is falling down.”

With that she slips effortlessly into The Library and found her bed leaving Albus staring at the place she was just stood. Fear of IT at the forefront of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if I should go into any sort of detail of the Christmas holiday for Harry and co.


	18. Chaper 17

A week before the school broke up for Christmas Petunia took Harry’s photo to the portkey office, and then went to visit the blacksmith that was in the same area of the Alley.

“Good morning lass, how may I help you?” The blacksmith wiped his hands on a dirty towel as he walks over.

“Good morning, I was wondering if I could commission a set of pure iron cooking pots and pans.”

“Oooch, you’re not asking for much there lass are you?”

“I know, but I want them to be pure iron, and while cast iron pans are freely available in the muggle world, I can’t guarantee that they’re free from impurities.”

“Aye, that’s cause they pour the iron to make them, and that always adds some impurities. Why would you want them?”

“I’ve been reading up on folklore and it’s worried me enough that I’d like some around, but want it to be useful as well.”

“Ah, muggle-born, I get one every few years that has the same worries and I tell them the same thing that I’ll tell you. They’re just fairy tales, and have been for at least 600 years.”

“I have reason to believe that there may be more truth to them than first glance would suggest.”

“Ya do, do ya? Tell ya what, I’ll lay out my iron samples and I’ll make your pans out of the iron that you pick.”

He goes into the smithy and puts on a pair of gloves before taking out 10 samples of iron and laying them out on the bench.

“Here ya go lass, you’ve got samples ranging from steel to pure iron. It’s the same test as I give to new apothecaries that want to buy from me and prospective apprentices.”

Immediately Petunia points at one of the samples in the middle, “That one.”

“Interesting choice, why that one?”

“It makes my skin crawl just being this close”

The blacksmith looks at her speculatively, “Good instincts lass, if ya were 10 years younger I’d be offering you an apprenticeship in the spot. I may haveta make meself a horseshoe an place it above my door.”

“I’m very in tune with my magic.”

“That you are, most people have to at least cast spells at it. Iffin ya having iron handles you’ll want to use gloves while using them.”

“That seems counterproductive, could you put brass or aluminium handles on there instead?”

“Thank merlin, someone with some sense. Aye lass I can do that. You won’t get them till near the end of January though, as these all need to be cold-forged too, and because it’s pure iron we won’t be able to use magic. So I’ll need to use some of the muggle equipment me da converted afore the war. I’ll get me apprentice to do one too, good learning experience. So, as this is hard work and I’m risking iron sickness, it will be 10G per pan, what do you want?”

“I’d like one skillet, one small pan and one medium, and matching lids though they don’t need to be pure iron.”

“Fair do’s, I’ll throw the lids in on the cost then, as we can use magic to make em.”

Petunia winced as she did the maths, as over £300 on three pans was very expensive, maybe they should have just bought horseshoes.

“Ok, I can give you a 10G deposit.”

“That’s mighty generous of ya lass.”

They exchanged details and Petunia paid the deposit before she headed home.

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At the school the up coming presentations by the creative clubs was overshadowed by the near panic that many students that were going to be staying over Christmas had. The male Weasleys especially, given who they were going to be staying with. Harry comforted Hermione when she learnt that the reason she was going home with Harry and then going to Alexandria was that her parents were going to a conference over Christmas, as it brought up bad memories of being sat in the corner of a cold and lifeless conference hall with a book and some toys while her parents pursued their careers.

The creative club’s display kicked off with a duplication of a famous prank done by the Marauders taken to the next level. Each suit of armour was charmed to pick a dance partner of a certain gender. They would then take their hand and lead them in a Waltz while the uniform was transfigured into either a renaissance dress or suit depending on gender. They would also have their hair and makeup done up for the period, and the transfigurations wouldn’t wear off for a few hours. The first years were responsible for animating the weapons in order to provide a band based on one muggle-borns description of Disney’s beauty and the beast. It had taken them a week to set up, and ready to be activated on a command.

The cooking club catered for Lunch with the assistance of the elves to help with the shear quantity of food needed.

The photography club did a set of winter shots, though the most poignant of them was done by Nicole who had a simple arial photograph of madam Pomfrey tending to Colin and Draco.

There was a school newsletter produced by the journalism club that was posted in each common room. Luna promised that she’d get her father to run off a proper run of their easter and summer newsletters.

The current intermediate meditation class all passed into the Hogwarts house, and even the first years had to do the sewing exercise much to their chagrin. They were also all informed that being in the muggle world was no excuse for not keeping it up, they needed to be creative and find some way to do it without being noticed. Hermione was the one that came up with the solution. Carry around a bag that was large enough to pass the needle through the fabric and pull the thread.

Finally Christmas arrived, and Harry, Hermione, Daphne, Dudley, Ginny, and Luna were whisked off to Alexandria in Egypt, all of them leaving their wands at school, as they figured that a stick of wood wasn’t exactly the most useful thing to carry with them. It did cause a little confusion in Egypt as the authorities weren’t sure what to make of the fact that they were all proficient with wandless magic to various degrees.

The library itself was absolutely stunning, and Karen immediately fell in love and started the process of gaining an associate membership so that she could visit on her own in the future. They completely lost her when she found out that all of the librarians had at least a muggle degree in librarianship. They lost Hermione and Luna shortly after that when Hermione found out that they have some recent translations of old books in languages that between Luna and herself they could understand. Dudley and Ginny weren’t so book bound, but they still had a healthy thirst for knowledge that had been cultivated by a term in the Ravenclaw dorms, and so they latched onto the muggle tours of the old ruins followed up with looking up the magical information on the same. Which left Harry and Petunia smiling indulgently at Hermione and Karen respectively, and Daphne looking a little bemused about the whole thing. The three of them spent one day in each week dedicated to the Library, and apart from Christmas Day, that they ensured everyone spent in the muggle world, they dragged Hermione, Luna and Karen out for two days doing non-research related things.

Daphne got her muggle shopping day, and some more and she couldn’t be happier. Petunia was approached about her Muggle tours merchandise, and ended up being detained by the Ottomans for a few days before the new year for suspected subversion. Once they found out and verified, that she wasn’t actually a witch they released her with a warning to be more careful in future, oh and would we be able to source those wrist bands from you please? Karen and family weren’t particularly pleased by that, but the British Ministry rep shrugged and said that it was par for the course at the moment.

Finally, they were all heading back to school after an absolutely brilliant holiday.

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For the first time ever, all of the Weasley boys were on the train before Harry and Co got there in the morning. The reason for that was they were desperate to get away from their aunt Muriel. The train ride was spent sharing stories of Christmas and Lavender, Parvati, Fay, and Susan of all people gushing about the things Daphne had bought.

The welcome feast provided a large surprise for everyone as McGonagall was sat at the teachers table with a book and a pillow that seemed to have some sort of needlework on it. Unsurprisingly the headmaster was absent.

Once everyone was seated, she stood.

“Good evening everyone and welcome back to the school. The DMCC did not find any creatures in the school or it’s environs that could have caused the petrification of Colin or Draco, They did however clear out a nest of acromantula that had been allowed to breed in an uncontrolled environment. They have left us with a small population so that we can harvest their silk, but you should be aware that they are a man eating species, and one of several species that can and will kill you if you trespass in the forest. As we are still unsure as to what has caused the petrification’s, we urge everyone to be alert and respect the curfew more than you probably do normally.

“On a more positive note, Professor Flitwick has visited the department of education and exams and there is a new elective owl that students can take from second year. This is in magical control, it will be taught in an informal setting and consists of sewing, knitting, a type of weaving called braiding, and finally lace making. It will be a purely practical exam where you will be expected to produce a product to their design within one hour. While it completely optional, he has been assured that both Gringotts and St mungo’s will be very interested in anyone with good grades regardless of blood status.” She indicates her own lace making when she says the last item.

“Of course, everyone that joins the Hogwarts house will need to do this anyway, so it’s an opportunity for those of you who don’t wish to take on the extra work load that joining the Hogwarts House would bring.

“On that note, I have become the first fully qualified warlock in 500 years. Over the Christmas break we discovered that this is what the Hogwarts house was originally for. As such I will be taking over the advanced meditation club so that our students can enjoy their sleep. Mister Filch will still be your guardian until you are ready to progress to the test. We will be having two advanced tests a year in order to ensure that the most people can join as a group as possible as you will all be doing the same course after that. You have until mid June to be ready to face the test, which will give us time to ensure that you have the absolute basics of what you need to know taught before the summer holidays.”

At the Hogwarts table Ginny exclaims quietly, “Oh, Mister Filch, he was so sad about his cat. Hogwarts can you help us find him a new cat please?”

Minerva continues unaware of Ginny’s comments, “Tomorrow I will be demonstrating part of what will be required for those that have joined Hogwarts House to gain their full qualification. The newest members of the house will also be having a public lesson, I ask that each head of house selects someone that believes they can do better than three first years and 2 second years to join the lesson with them, it will be a wanded lesson, but everyone will be using one of the wands that will be passed around in a moment.

This is to discourage those of you who only want to join for the prestige. The last piece of pertinent information you need to know is that as soon as you join the house you will be forbidden from using your wand for the rest of your stay here. If anyone from Hogwarts House actually has their wand blank would you be able to pass it around the tables please so that everyone can see what they will need to use instead for their wanded subjects.

“On that note, would the house elves please bring in the food, and enjoy your meal.”

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The next day found most of the school sitting shivering in the Quidditch stands waiting for the demonstration to begin. The Deputy Headmistress walked out into the centre of the pitch and looked around at the distant faces.

“Now this won’t do. You’re all cold and shivering, and you won’t be able to see anything from up there. Let me fix that.”

With that she drew here original wand, that she’d asked Hogwarts to allow her to use for this. Swirling it around her head with visible effort, the quidditch stands lowered down to the ground level and the excess material went to form it into a covered stadium and the grass floor turned into sand. The seating areas also started to show the effects of warming charms.

Once she was finished she turned to the teachers stand, “Professor, would you please look after my wand. It has great sentimental value.”

Once Flitwick had taken her wand she walked out into the centre of the coliseum and drew herself up to her full height and turned around to look at the students of the school as she formally introduced herself.

“I am Minerva McGonagall, I remember the Gindelwald war, I remember when muggles first flew across the ocean, and I remember when they landed on the moon. I am a Mistress of Transfiguration. I have faced Voldemort and lived, and most recently I am a Warlock. I am the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts school, and I am the Apprentice of Hogwarts herself.

“Watch now as I demonstrate the skills that our young warlocks will need to demonstrate to become fully qualified Warlocks in their own right.”

In the wake of the stunned silence around the stadium, the quidditch goals transformed into colossus while rising out of the ground on either side came tigers, bears, griffons, unicorns, eagles, and more. One side coloured white the other green. And then war began, the phrase ‘All hell let loose’ would be taken up as a description of what happened. Sheets of spell fire raged across the battlefield from her hands and she rained down destruction from above, with not a single stray spell entering the stands. The younger students were spellbound by the display, the older students and teachers that understood what they were seeing looked on in awe at the sheer level of power and control demonstrated as a new Magical Titan, joined the ranks of Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort, Grindelwald, other figures from history and legend. The more astute of them realised that she was performing at a level above those names, as she was doing all of this without a wand. As the display continued for an hour, those same students and teachers very carefully resolved to be much more polite towards the Deputy Headmaster. Alas, one Albus Dumbledore had taken the opportunity to raid the Library while the rest of the school was otherwise occupied, and thus was not there to witness this display.

Once the display was finished she bowed and called for the new members of Hogwarts house.

“I would like to take the opportunity to welcome First years Ginevra Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and Dudley Dursley, and Second years Hannah Abbot and Millicent Bulstrode to Hogwarts house. Now I understand that the three First years have spent the holiday with existing members of Hogwarts house, so I’m expecting that you will be able to keep up with the lesson as it will be wanded. Would the volunteers from each house please come down.”

Rodger Davis, Marcus Flint, and Percy Weasley all came down from the stands. Professor Sprout however stood, and addressed Minerva.

“I’m not sorry to say that we didn’t have anyone in our house that felt they could perform better in this lesson than the first years. Would you accept a volunteer that is willing to do this in good cheer to round out the houses?”

“I will, the intent of the lesson is to show how hard it is, not to humiliate anyone. I asked for those that felt they could do better than first years as that would bring people out that were confident in their own abilities.”

“In that case 6th year Christopher Lancaster has volunteered, though he fears that he will be rather useless without his normal wand.”

Christopher joined the other three, who were no looking much less confident than they had been.

Minerva summoned some loose sticks from the forest and transfigured them into 10 wands. Keeping one for herself she floated the others to the waiting students.

“As I just alluded to, this demonstration is not to show up the older students, instead it is to demonstrate how much harder this route is for those who want to join Hogwarts house. As everyone will start off as a novice regardless of their level in schooling these are the first lessons that all of you will be doing, whether you’re 1st years or 7th years. Now put away your wands, for this lesson you will only be using the wand blanks I just provided.”

She then transfigures a stick into several matches and passes out one to each of them while keeping one levitating in front of her.

“Transfigure these matchsticks into a needle… Now put a flower into the eye of the needle.”

She does each step with the students, then walks over to see the results.

“Well done everyone, Flint your needle is still wooden, Weasley your matchstick is while metal is lacking the point. Davis are you even trying? Lancaster, good effort, and you managed the hint of a flower. Abbot, well done, again you managed the hint of a flower. Same for you Bulstrode. Weasley, well done, your tulip could do with more details, I can see you’ve been practicing over Christmas. Dursley, needles are typically not wooden, but good effort, and you managed a flower too. Luna, I’m impressed, this is what I’d expect from students that have mastered this lesson, I love the way you’ve got the rosebush growing up around the eye, would you mind if I passed this to the other students?”

“No, go ahead.”

She passes the needle around before handing it back to Luna and stepping back in front of them.

“Now I want you to turn the matchstick into a fishhook… Bottlecap… The largest Javelin you can.”

Christopher’s javelin came out at a respectable two feet long matching both Ginny and Dudley’s javelins. Percy managed a javelin on par with Luna, but both Marcus and Rodger failed to even get one as large as Hannah or Millicent.

“Well done everyone, turn it back into a match. Now levitate your match in front of you. Turn it into Copper… Brass… Bone… China… Tin… Magnesium.”

After a moment Christopher speaks up, “What’s Magnesium professor?”

“Well done for asking for clarification. This is Magnesium, it is a soft metal that’s highly reactive. Muggles have found that it has an atomic number of 12. Once you’re done we’ll test your transfiguration by lighting it on fire.”

She floats over a stick that she transfigures into Magnesium so that he can look, see and feel and pass around to the other students.

“Flint, do not hold your match, keep it levitating. Well done everyone, levitate it a little further in front of you and Professor Flitwick, if you could come down and do the honours and light each one. If you’ve successfully transfigured it to pure magnesium it will burn with a pure white light that is blinding in it’s intensity. Flint if you do not want to lose your fingers you will keep your matchstick levitating, it will be lit whether you’re holding it or not. Davis you need to hold it steady.”

Professor Flitwick makes his way down to the floor, and as far as Flint and Davis are concerned takes his own sweet time making his way over to them. Once there he lights Minerva’s match first and a blinding, brilliant white light appears for a few seconds. He then does each of the students matches. Percy’s doesn’t light, as he transfigured it to lead. Flint, Davis, Ginny’s, and Dudley’s all burn with a brilliant white light with more or less blue-white sparks showing an incomplete transfiguration. Both Luna and Christopher have the same Brilliant white light as Minerva’s.

“Well done everyone, you can put your wands down now. Percy you need to work on your visualisation more, especially once you’re tired as while lead can appear like magnesium, it doesn’t match the sample that I handed you. Flint and Davis, you need to work on your endurance, as this was only first year spells and you were both wavering towards the end. Lovegood and Lancaster very well done on your visualisation. Dursley and Ginevra well done, I’m sure you know what you need to work on. 10 points each to our volunteers and can I have a round of applause for putting themselves out… The demonstration is now over. I hope that I have demonstrated just how much more work you will be signing up for if you choose to go through the meditation lessons to join the Hogwarts house. Be warned that if you choose to progress to the intermediate class you will need to progress to join the house for your own safety.”

All the students start to file in, Marcus, Percy, and Rodger are surprised to find that the lesson took an hour. Lancaster on the other hand walked over to McGonagall.

“Professor?”

“Yes Lancaster?”

“After that lesson, I’d like to join the Hogwarts house, but I’m worried that next year is my NEWT year, and I’ll have so much to do.”

“You’ll be an adult by the summer holidays?”

“Yes ma’am, 14th May.”

“Very well, I can offer to put you through the same accelerate training that I just went through over the summer. Don’t answer now, think about it and give me a written answer once you’re an adult. To be specific, this will be two weeks of intensive training that will culminate in a 24 hour tests where you will be required to show your proficiency in all of the spells that you’ve learnt at Hogwarts wandlessly, followed by a 12 hour war like I demonstrated earlier. It will be the most exhausting two weeks of your life, but at the end of it you will be an accomplished warlock. Just so that you know, everyone that joins the house is a warlock, but they start as a Novice, we plan on everyone being a Journeyman when they complete their owls, and then an Accomplished warlock when they complete their NEWTS. Amongst other things I am working towards becoming a Master Warlock.

“I must also reiterate that I cannot guarantee your safety should you choose to follow the path to join the house. Once you are a warlock you’ll be safe enough, especially once the training is over, but there will always be an element of risk that I can’t explain in a way that you’d understand until you experience it.”

“I think that I know a few other NEWT students that would be willing to do go through this to learn that level of control.”

“If it’s just control you want, you can do the new OWL, that’s why it’s there. Professor Flitwick has almost as much control as I do now, and he’s only going to get better as he runs that class. The two week course will force you to learn control if you don’t already have it.”

“It’s not just that, it was also your endurance and” He flails around for the words to describe what he’s feeling.

“You’re welcome to join the basic meditation classes when ever you want. You just need to make it to the intermediate classes before the summer begins if you still want that course by then.”

With that she returns the Quidditch pitch to normal, and heads back to the school. As she gets out of the stadium she’s accosted by Snape.

“Minerva, I want you to teach me.”

“I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Can’t, it would literally kill you.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s something to do with that mark on your arm, but as soon as you qualify for the intermediate meditation group you would die.”

Snape goes pale and gulps, “Thank you for your consideration.”

He then turns and walks off with his back rigid.


	19. Chaper 18

The next day set the tone for the rest of the year for the first batch of Hogwarts house students. Minerva led them into the Great hall in the armoury.

“Congratulations, you no longer need to rely on descriptions from Hogwarts for this class. In this lesson we are going to be learning the foundation for one of the hardest skills you will ever need to master as a Warlock. How to use your full power while also keeping your magic suppressed or at the level you need in order to stay in the realm you’re currently in. Without this skill you won’t be able to be more than an explorer in the three realms that make up this layer.

“To start with, I want you to hold out your wands at arms-length in front of you. Now I want you to expand your magic until only the tip of your wand isn’t covered.”

She waited for half an hour while everyone struggled with this in different ways. Lavender, Parvati, and Daphne struggled to expand their magic out that far, while Harry and Hermione struggled to reign in their magic that far.

Once they all had it, and were struggling with holding it she spoke up again.

“I’m going to fire a colour changing charm at all of you, so you can see the effect that this will have. You can then attempt the next step.”

They clearly see the charm interact with their magic, and for Lavender, Parvati and Daphne it was as if they’d taken a blow as it dissipated through their magic.

“OK, the next stage is to keep your bubble as it is while also lowering your internal magic to the level you’d need to return to the nest. I expect you all to fail this, and you’re only trying it today so that you can see what you’re working towards.”

As expected, all of their bubbles collapsed as soon as they started to change their internal magic.

“Well done, now we’re going to do the reverse technique for the rest of the lesson, you’re going to keep your magic at the level of the nest, and then push out your bubble and slowly fill it with magic until it reaches your normal output. You won’t believe me at the moment, but this is actually the harder technique to master than the first one. Once you can do both techniques in a matter of seconds we will move on to how to use your magic. Your next Armoury lesson this week will be spent further working on your visualisation and wandless magic covering any new charms and transfigurations you’ve learnt since then. We’ll also throw in some DADA as you don’t have a good professor this year. Don’t let it out of this House but Lockhart has already failed his last chance, and so I’ve written to Amelia to see if she has anyone she can spare from the DMLE to act as a substitute. Well get on with it.”

The spent the next 25 minutes just trying to get a bubble to form, let alone filling it with magic. By the end of the lesson they were absolutely exhausted, but they still had the rest of their classes to go to.

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Albus was becoming frantic. He’d managed to finish going through all of the books in the library that might have anything to do with IT, but there was nothing there. There were also no hints about what Tom might have done to be able produce the soul shard. His permission to use the Department of Mysteries Library had come through, and he also had permission to visit the Library of Alexandria over the summer. 

He’d also managed to set up a load of tracking charms over the castle that would go off if it detected someone’s magic become paralysed or a death was detected, and then track any non-human through the school. It had taken him over a month to do, because his initial charm detected when someone’s magic disappeared, and kept being set off around the school for no apparent reason. He reasoned that whatever was causing the petrification’s may not actually be with the person that was directing it. So now it was just a matter of waiting for it to strike again, and also try to work out what Minerva had learnt that would lead to the display that he’d heard students talking about.

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Lockhart was sitting in his room after classes working through his meditation. It was proving to be quite relaxing, and he decided that he’d carry it on after his contract was over. He cycled his breath slowly again, the now familiar drawn out “Ommmm” coming from his mouth, as he focused on clearing his mind and his breathing. He suddenly had a brilliant idea for Valentines day, Eros messengers, he’d just need to hire some cheap workers for the day to do the deliveries.

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Petunia paid for her new pans and had to take the bus back home for the first time in forever as they prevented her from apparating. All three of them then spent a long time getting used to their presence, and Nixie flat out refused to go within 6 feet of them, even with Petunia. This actually led to an interesting discovery, as it became apparent that Nixie could actually teleport after she appeared at home with Petunia after refusing to get on the bus with her. None of them could even touch the pans without feeling as if it was burning, and the only way they could use magic to cook with them was by manipulating the handles. The lids were absolutely no problem whatsoever, which just went to show how much the impurities affected the iron.

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Azaria appeared in a deserted street. She’d followed the trail of one of the groups that left the preserve, and was now in the deep desert. She could tell that was the world from legend where non-magical slaves that they’d brought back to their home to keep ignorant of their new found magic millennia ago. Maybe she and her clan could find sanctuary here, as once easy prey had dried up here, the courts started moving on the independent clans, and hers was one of the most recent victims. But first she needed to report back that she’d found the route the kidnappers had followed, though the first one lead to a dead end. If she wasn’t quick then she may suffer a horseshoe for an hour, and if she didn’t return it would be one of her clansmen.

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Amelia read the letter from Susan a second time and then looked at the request that came from the Deputy Headmistress. She wrote a letter to the Deputy to book an appointment with the head of the Hogwarts house that Susan was now part of. Then went to the ministry archives to read up on what warlocks are, while thinking about the arguments she could use to put a few of her Aurors through this training.

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Dan and Emma Granger were released from prison in Magical Greece for illegal entry, and barred from Magical and Muggle Greece for life.

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Christopher and a few other NEWT level Hufflepuffs cornered Hannah and Susan one evening and grilled them about what they were learning in their new house. They then joined the meditation club.

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Apart from Snape, the other heads of houses and their assistants all started private meditation lessons intending on taking the hell week option over the summer.

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Going over the accounts, Minerva calculated that they could hire another couple of teachers by increasing tuition by 1G a year. They could also replace Binns as the History teacher, as his wages were still being paid out, though after questioning he wasn’t actually aware of this fact. This was only possible because the sitting fee of the board had been reduced back to it’s original levels.

“Hogwarts, would it be alright if I arrange a meeting between the heads of houses for this evening at 8 in the armoury?”

“My dear, you are a fully qualified Warlock now, you have won the right to make those decisions yourself.”

“Thank you.”

Later that day she escorted all of the heads of houses apart from Snape into a side room of the Armoury. Well, when she says escorted, she actually just means wrapped them all in her magic and transported everyone at the same time.

“Well, that was novel, where are we?” Pomona asks in her no-nonsense understated way.

“We’re in the armoury, bear with me, there’s very little in the way of permanent furnishings here so I just need to decorate. Any preferences on seats.”

Once he’s overcome his dizziness Flitwick asks, “So where is the Armoury in relation to the Great Hall?”

“Sideways? Up? It’s a little hard to explain until you’ve experienced it yourself. Now I’ll ask once more any preferences for furnishings or do I just do whatever?”

“Can you do Plush and Comfortable with a fire?” Babbling asks.

“Sure.”

Hardwood panels with a light stain made their way up the walls as a soft carpet spread over the floor under everyone’s feet. Velvet upholstered chairs and sofas, including one sized so that Flitwick would be at eye level to everyone with a discrete staircase, appeared in a half circle around the fire place that was now faced with a marble mantle with the mascots of each house engraved on it. A Candle crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling sending light sparkling around the room.

“How’s that?”

“It’s good, how did you get this good?” she asks.

“Two weeks of hell, followed by lacemaking. Don’t worry, you’ve all agreed to experience it yourselves so it’s not a problem.” She indicated to the ever present pillow that even now was moving pins and bobbins around.

Once everyone was seated she began, “I’ve got two things to talk about. The first is new staff and the quality of our schooling.”

“What’s the second?”

“A new headmaster.”

“What!?” and variations on it come from around the room.

“Quite simply, due to reasons I don’t want to go into, Albus will only ever be able to access ¼ of the school, and I’m not sure if we’ll want him as headmaster if he is ever able to access the rest of it. If you want to know more you can ask Hogwarts when you meet her. As it stand now, we’re meeting in the Armoury because meeting in The Library would currently kill all of you. As it stands I need to keep an eye on the time so that it doesn’t become deadly for you to be here. I know you can’t imagine what would be so dangerous about parts of the school, but you will, and you’ll also realise why the curfew is so important for those that live in The Nest, which is the name of the part that you’re familiar with. As it stands by the end of summer you will all be vastly more qualified to be Headmaster than Albus, or you’ll be dead.”

“Dead? When did you say anything about dead?” Vector asks shrilly.

“When I kept talking about how dangerous it was, and how we needed parental permission to do this, what did you think I meant?”

“I… I guess I didn’t really think about it, after all Care is Dangerous, and so is Potions.”

“As is Transfiguration, and all if them can kill you. However, we don’t require written permission to do them because the chances of someone dying are very small. The methods we use for training to do this are the safest it’s possible to make, when you join the intermediate club you get plenty of practice at moving between different parts of the school. However there is one test that everyone has to pass in order to become a warlock, and that’s in the advanced class. While we will try to save you if you fail, despite our best efforts you may just die, or be trapped on another world with no way home. The better trained you are the easier it will be to save you. Where we benefit compared to trying to learn outside Hogwarts is that you can practice the skill that will save your life safely. I’ve got an idea for a demonstration. Filius, as the most skilled of us as charms, I want you to catch the feathers I’m about to levitate before they cross the yellow line.”

With that she conjures 3 feathers and sets up a curtain of light in the air.

“This one will be a completely untrained witch or wizard that is awake at the wrong time.”

The first feather zooms straight up and is bobbing against the ceiling, Flitwick’s spell completely misses it.

“This one will be someone that’s trained, but hasn’t had the advantage that we have in Hogwarts”

The second feather goes up faster, and Flitwick is able to catch it while part of the feather is still below the light.

“The last one is someone that has trained here with our resources but is just unable to control it.”

The third feather went up at a positively leisurely pace and was easily caught.

“So you see?”

“Yes, I think I see, I’ll still go ahead with the training, though that’s as far as I’m willing to go.” Vector replies with a shaky voice

“That’s OK, I know it’s not for everyone. Now as we’re on this subject, I can’t become the headmistress for a good reason. I accidentally entered into an apprenticeship to Hogwarts, as I asked her to train me how she was trained.”

“How does that translate into an apprenticeship?” Emerson asks.

Minerva grimaces, “Magic, the more magical you are the more easily your magic enters into agreements if you’re not careful. So much like we warn children not to swear on their magic, because if they do it while holding their wand it can be binding. Once you are in tune enough with your magic, you don’t need your wand anymore. In fact, Hogwarts advised everyone to point blank refuse to agree to anything unless it’s signed in blood as a matter of course. Especially if someone is trying to persuade you that you’ve entered a contract that you are adamant that you didn’t.”

“Ok, so that doesn’t explain why you can’t be the headmaster.”

“The headmasters position is to listen to Hogwarts and argue with if necessary, and then implement her will. As her Apprentice I am obliged to do what she asks no matter what, or risk my magic. The same with any apprenticeship. The other thing is that the new Headmaster will need to be a Magi, that’s a step up from Warlock, and from what Hogwarts has said it’s a large step up, as that’s the only way to reach the Sanctuary where Hogwarts can manifest properly. According to Hogwarts we can collectively suspend the headmaster with 6 months’ notice, during which time he is not allowed to make any staffing changes, however he can appeal directly to Hogwarts and if he succeeds we will be stripped of our positions as deputy and heads of houses. I will also need to step down as the assistant head of Gryffindor in April as we can only hold more than 1 position for 10 months. Once Albus has gone, we have 12 months to provide Hogwarts with a selection of Headmasters to choose from, during this time we are responsible for hiring and firing. The new headmaster can countermand our decisions if they choose to. I’ll leave this on the table, and we can vote on it after Valentine’s Day.”

“I’ve been looking at our accounts, and we have enough money to hire 2 new staff and replace Professor Binns if I raise tuition by 1G a year. There is one very good reason why we need to replace Binns and it is to do with the answer to one question. Who here knew that there was a Ministry run school that has over 1,000 students?”

She looked around at the blank looks.

“I didn’t either until Hermione and Daphne forced Millicent to talk to me. It opened in 1803 when our population started ballooning along with the muggle population. According to the history book that she lent from her sister, it had to open because Hogwarts became a Scholarship and Alumni only school. At the time Hogwarts had an intake of around 150 new students a year. Before the last war we were peaking at 80, we are now lucky if we get 50. I had Binns read the book, and he could only remember a fraction of it and wasn’t interested in even teaching that. We are supposed to be the premier teaching establishment for magic in the world. 500 years ago we only had 5 rivals out of all the schools, academies, and guild colleges in the world, we were 1 of only 10 institutions that could qualify Warlocks and Magi. Now look at us, we are all masters in our fields, and we produce the best students we can. But I’ve seen how much better we can be with the progress that Hogwarts house has been making. What I would like to do is bring in a muggle teacher to teach chemistry and maybe physics to NEWT level, this is based on Hogwarts enthusiasm for the subjects. I want to also split third year and above classes into a two track system, with A level students in one class, and EE and O students in the other, rather than by house. The upper track class I want you to push, get the best out of them that you can.

“Finally, I want to resurrect one of the old subjects that we no longer teach, and stop the Divination Elective. We will need to keep Trelawney on staff until a more reliable diviner can be found, but she doesn’t need to teach. We can’t teach ritual magic any more since it was outlawed just before the Gindelwald war. However, Hogwarts used to teach Illusion and Healing as unstructured magic classes. We also used to teach more academics than just history, though she wasn’t clear on what subjects they actually were. But I think the muggle teacher may be able to cover those.”

She sits back in her chair surprised at how passionate she’d become.

“Sorry about that, I. I really care about the school, and after hearing stories of what it was like when it was set-up, I want it to be that good again. I want to be turning students away because we don’t have space, not because they can’t afford to come, or they didn’t have the right parents. I want this to be the best institution for teaching magic bar none. I’ll be in my office in The Library, call for Hogwarts when you want to go, or I’ll come and kick you all out at 9pm. Oh, and she can talk to you, but it’s a bit hit and miss here, so she prefers not to.”

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Nicole was getting frustrated with herself as she was still unable to get to the Library as it was like there was something disrupting her magic and draining it slightly. At first she thought it could be her diary, but it couldn’t be as he was such a good friend. She didn’t want to go to a professor in case they tried to take the diary away, so she tried to deal with it on her own.

That evening Penelope Clearwater was escorting some first years back to the dorm room when she saw Nicole standing in the middle of the corridor, her head down. A hissing sound echoing around the walls. Nearly Headless Nick came out through a wall.

“Milady, you must run, something bad is coming.” He then planted himself in the middle of the corridor and spread himself as wide as she could.

Nicole then raised her head, her face the slack blankness of someone that wasn’t there, glowing read eyes lighting up the corridor and the hissing sound coming clearly from her lips.

“Nicole! No, you don’t need to do this.”

“Nicole is not here, do you know what is? Your death.”

A large snake head came around the corner and Penny tried to defend the children but found her body failed to respond to her as the baleful yellow eye blinked and glowed hazily through Nicks translucent body before blinking again. Nicole then turned to the snake and patted it on it’s muzzle and hissed something else.


	20. Chaper 19

Albus was absolutely ecstatic, his wards had been tripped and he’d traced the creature back into the bathroom that Miss Warren haunts. He should have guessed it would be there, but he was in St Mungo’s when she died, and no-one mentioned where it happened, just that she died. He found a half complete Polyjuice potion in the toilet bowl of one of the stalls, and put a golden goose curse on it. He then placed charms around the bathroom that would alert him immediately if someone passed through them. If it was whoever was trying to make a bad batch of Polyjuice, he could tell them off and assign them a detention after lecturing them on just what could have gone wrong with the mistakes he could see. Even better, he’d send them to Severus to have the curse removed and a stasis charm on the potion so they couldn’t get rid of the evidence on the way. If it’s not, Fawkes would hopefully be willing to bring him here, he’d just have to buy some figs to bribe him with. There was also something about Mandrake solution, but Pomona would have the mandrakes ready in a few months so there was no reason to get them.

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Harry woke up on February the 14th to find a few cards on his bedside table, he’d sent a few himself too. Waking up as a boy had been happening more often since he’d finished healing his shoulder. His mind healer said that it’s because, while it was a hard two weeks, it forced his brain to accept that actually there were positive things to be found as a boy, so it lessened the impact of his childhood. He was also assured that he was making great progress, and that it was always going to be a long process. He went to his chest and took out a card and a carefully wrapped scarf he’d found in Alexandria that he thought that Hermione would love, along with a pamphlet of ways to use it for different styles of headscarf as well as a couple of neck styles. It was full sized in a cobalt blue at one corner and emerald green at the opposite corner, variegating in together with an embroidered pattern done in bronze thread. He thought it would bring out her hazel eyes beautifully and she could choose which colour to accent by the way she folded the scarf. He thought she might appreciate it if he went in his base form, so after he got ready he shifted and tied his hair into a loose ponytail and smoothed out the slight points on his ears, then went to find her. Fortunately, it was a Sunday so he could wear clothes that he new she liked.

Minerva looked up from her lace as Harry came in, and she watched hearts breaking amongst the older girls as he searched out Hermione at their table. If they weren’t dating by their owl year she’d be willing to eat her lace. She could even tell the moment that she noticed him walking towards him as her whole posture changed. A ripple of silence spread out so that everyone could hear what he was going to say.

“Hermione, I’ve sent out a few friendship cards this year, but I thought that the card for my best friend deserved to be hand delivered. I also found this gift and thought that as it’s coming into spring you might find some use for it.”

Hermione opened the card, and then the gift, then squealed and ran around the table before launching herself at Harry to bring him into a hug.

“I love it, thank you. I’ve got a card for you too.” The card in question zipped out of her bag and hung in front of Harry. As his hands were full of Hermione, he opened it with his magic and then hugged her back and shifted into his girl form.

“I love it, thank you.”

Minerva could see that a few of the boys were getting a good view of how she’d developed over the last 6 months, so she discretely coughed into her hands.

“Miss Potter, would you be able do something about your wardrobe or your body please?”

A blush spread over her face that almost matched her hair as she chose to fix her wardrobe rather than give up Hermione’s hug, the card falling to the floor as her whole concentration went to that task.

Lockhart chose that moment to ruin the mood by standing up and making an announcement.

“Good morning everyone, as the scene in front of us reminds us, today as Valentines day. I’d like to thank the 32 witches, “

He adds, “and wizards,” under his breath before continuing.

“who sent me valentine’s day cards. In order to facilitate romance in the school, I felt that an Eros delivery service would work well. As such I hired some wonderful people to act as a singing cupid. Please give a big hand to your cupids.”

As he says that the doors to the great hall open and in troop 20 rather grumpy looking dwarves that have feathered wings attached to their backs and wearing a nappy. By the looks on their faces, it’s a good thing that the gold coloured bow in their hands are decorative rather than functional otherwise Lockhart would be a pincushion at the moment.

The novelty wore off as soon as the first Dwarf opened their mouth to sing, unfortunately voices that sounded as though they’d been smoking 20 a day for the last 20 years and then gargled gravel didn’t make the best singing voices. At that point, everyone that could go to the library did so, leaving the rest of the school to fend for themselves.

When they got there, Hogwarts appeared.

“Hello children. What brings you here instead of socialising with the other students?”

Lavender explained.

“Hmm, well, you’re supposed to be children so go and play tag in the east courtyard. I will add two rules, you can’t leave the courtyard, but you can use the crests. There will be no safe places, but you will not be allowed to tag the person that just tagged you. Now shoo, go play across all three courtyards.”

“That was very clever, they’ll be learning to do the same thing that you asked me to do, but having fun doing it.” Minerva said from a little further down the corridor.

“I was a teacher you know. I forgot to mention no spells, ah well, they should be fine.”

The sounds of screams and laughter echoed through the courtyard for the rest of the day. Other students tried to join in, but ended up playing elsewhere after the people they were chasing touched a wall and disappeared. Over the day, driven by the adrenaline of the game, their shifting became faster and smoother. Though none of them were at the point where they didn’t need to touch the crest. At the end of the day none of them could say who threw the first spell, but soon leg lockers, tripping jinxes, body binds and lumos were all being used to try and slow each other down. They also learnt to cancel those spells on the fly, as the freeform nature of wandless magic came into it’s own.

The twins, attracted by the rapidly vanishing and appearing dots on their map, were the unfortunate targets of retribution when they tried to skew the game with a couple of more advanced spells. They got to watch the rest of game while langlocked, bound and stuck to the wall with their wands an inch from their hands.

Strangely, once other students saw the twins, they got a steady stream of dwarves singing them ‘love’ messages, and the children playing tag would not be around for long until they left.

Later that evening Sprout approached Minerva.

“Minerva, I’ve got a question about the Ministry School that you told us about last week.”

“Go ahead?”

“Why didn’t I know about it?”

“I don’t have a good answer, but the best one that I can give is because of the likes of Black, Malfoy, Nott, Carrow and the other traditional sect noble houses that can be a bit quick with their wands when they think they’ve been insulted. So because there’s only two schools, when you’re shopping for school supplies, there’s only two places you could be going. As such, everyone’s got into the habit of asking if you’re going to Hogwarts.”

“But what about the Headmaster, surely he knew?”

“If he did, then he never told me. He’s certainly old enough that it was still appearing in the papers occasionally, I had Pince look through our archive. I found out about this in November, and I didn’t want to believe it myself.”

“Shouldn’t he have said something?”

Minerva spreads her hand helplessly “I don’t know. Look, you’re the most grounded of us. Would you mind getting in contact with the school and go to visit over the easter break?”

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Petunia, Karen and Ceeley all managed to get used to having the pure iron cookware, although it did turn into a rotation of who was going to do the cooking every night as none of them really wanted to be close to them. This had actually lead to a blow up argument with the matriarch that was looking after the elflings, when she heard the three of them discussing who was going to cook next. It ended when Ceeley ended up telling her to go and cook herself if it was that easy. She walked into the kitchen and managed to cook some bacon before she came out and said she was going to stay out of this discussion now.

Petunia insisted that they needed to use the pans otherwise they’d just be put away where they wouldn’t bother them and forgotten about. And the last thing she wanted was to find out they were needed and they couldn’t get to them.

Valentines Day had been romantic, and even Ceeley had somewhere she wanted to be instead of the house.

It was coming up towards Easter when a group of 5 people appeared in the dining room.

“I thought you said you had the trail” one of them whispered.

“I did, can’t you feel the expanded space above us?” a woman whispered back.

“Pyeti, find the Urisk, Reian, Armus find the thieves. Azaria, keep an eye out for trouble and no funny stuff.”

Pyeti moves off and trips over a dining chair.

“Pyeti, you scubat, use your eyes.”

The sound of something in the Dining room woke Ceeley up. Listening intently she could hear people moving around the house slowly. Climbing out of her cupboard in the kitchen she grabs the smallest pan and levitates the other two by their handles. Sending the first pan out of the kitchen door she hears a hiss of agony and immediately launches the second pan toward the voice getting a satisfying yelp. She comes out to find people trying to get to the stairs that look like Harry’s base forms, so she launches herself at the one closes to the stairs while she sends the skillet at the other one. The larger saucepan she keeps behind her as a shield. In a panic they both disappear, and she is able to turn to deal with the rest. Her saucepan absorbs a spell that was coming at her, and she immediately sends her other pans at the source of the spell.

Shaken she drags the pans up to Petunia’s room and sits awake until she’s sure that the dream has passed, then joins the other two in bed.

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Azaria found herself pressed up against a wall, a sword pressed against her throat.

“What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know, and I wanted to scout more but Winteroath overruled me.” She pleaded

“Well take a guess.”

“I didn’t feel any other iron in the house apart from those pans, so I think they feared we would come” she rationalised on the spot.

“Very well, you live this time. Go and scout it out and once they’ve dropped their guard we’ll grab the elf and their bonded. They took one of ours so we’ll take one of theirs, the fact that they are already trained will be a bonus.”


	21. Chaper 20

Amelia arrived at Hogwarts at nearly one in the afternoon. If she remembered correctly Lunch was going to be finishing soon, so she wasn’t sure why Minerva wanted to see her so early, normally they’d schedule meetings for the evening once classes were over. A few minutes later a rush of students left the Main Hall, and she saw Minerva come out, some sort of needle work on a pillow bobbing along beside her.

“Good afternoon Amelia, if you’ll follow me, I’ll lead you to my office.”

Following along behind her she said conversationally, “I could have met you there if it was more convenient to you.”

“Nay ya couldn’t lass, we’re going to my Deputy office, which has moved.” She lead them off to the left of the central staircase, then turned right and took her up a set of stairs.

“Oh, is this a new thing?”

“Ya could say that, aye.” Minerva then led them back towards the central staircase, she must be more out of shape than she thought as the climb up that staircase had left her light headed.

“Has someone done some remodelling? As I don’t recognise where we are.”

“Not at all, we rediscovered some lost parts of the school. In here, and take a seat. Would you like cup of tea while you acclimate?”

Shaking her head to try to clear it, Amelia responds absently, “Sure, I like the décor.”

A few minutes later her head stopped feeling fuzzy, and she noticed the private smile that Minerva had on her face.

“I’m glad that I’m amusing you.”

“Oh, no, I’m not smiling at you yet. But if you’re ready we can start the meeting with Susan’s head of house.”

“I’m feeling much better thanks, so we can start whenever you’re ready.”

Hogwarts appeared seeming to sit in one of the other chairs.

“What was it you wanted to talk about?”

Amelia can only gape for a couple of moments, as she was expecting her to get up and bring in another teacher. The cause of the smile on Minerva’s face now readily apparent. Pulling herself together, she began.

“I received a note from Minerva asking if could borrow one of my Aurors to take over the defence position as a substitute as the current professor is incompetent. I also received a letter from Susan about the demonstration that you put on at the beginning of term, and how you were now a fully qualified Warlock. After looking up the laws on Warlocks, I discovered a few things.

“First, did you know that your demonstration was actually legally required to be recognised as a Warlock by the ministry?”

“I wasn’t aware of that no.”

“Without that the Ministry would only recognise you as a Novice Warlock. Secondly, to claim to be fully qualified you need to be recognised as such by a legally recognised Magi.”

“Hi, I’m Hogwarts, pleased to meet you. I’d introduce myself formally, but you’re neither a student of mine, nor an equal.”

“I’m not actually sure what that means.”

Minerva sighs, “It means that Hogwarts is the archmagis that the school was named after. And that she became part of the school accidentally when she willingly sacrificed herself to power the wards. She is the reason the school was still allowed to train warlocks and magi after the founders died. Finally, I am her apprentice.”

Amelia has to sit there processing the information for a good few minutes, opening her mouth to ask a question and closing it again more than once.

“Right. OK. I’ll set that to one side for the moment. I’m willing to let you use one of my Auror’s that on mandatory desk duty for the next few months due to an injury they sustained. I was hoping that I could negotiate to have a few of us trained up as Warlocks in a similar timeframe rather than charging you for their services. I’ll confess that I’ve already advertised the training, I described it as two weeks of hell that is worse than Moody’s accelerated course. I’ve had one sign up already, I’m sure you’ll recognise the name Tonks, she’s currently in the middle of Moody’s accelerated course, so she must be a masochist. But then so am I as I’m going to sign up too if it’s available.”

Hogwarts and Minerva share a glance before Minerva speaks, “It is your decision master.”

Hogwarts sighed, as with that she firmly let her know that this was now her responsibility as she felt it fell outside her remit as a teacher or deputy, but they really needed a competent defence teacher, and Albus was currently holding the purse strings.

“OK, it’s a deal, as long as everyone that is going to take part can reach this part of the school on their own they can learn.”

“What do we need to know in order to reach this part of the school.”

Minerva takes over again, “Do you know Occlumency?”

“Some, it’s required for the job so that we can tell if someone’s trying to read us.”

“Focus on the first step until you can visualise your magic, then work on quieting your magic slowly so that you can see it reflected in the visualisation. Once you can raise and lower it, put your hand on one of Hogwarts Crests that are dotted around the school, and lower it before raising it slowly, that will bring you here.”

“That was awfully plain Minerva, normally you’re more cryptic than that.”

“That’s because I’m trying to discourage students from doing it so we only get a few a year.”

“It’s a…”

“While I remember, trying this is a death sentence for anyone with a dark mark.”

“It’s still a deal, but I’ll add that to the form.”

They then continued chatting for a while before Amelia was led out of the school.

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Half-way through February, the Heads of houses all met at the Three Broomsticks without Minerva or Snape, and spent the evening in the private room discussing what she’d asked them a few weeks before.

After not getting anywhere for most of the meeting they moved onto the discussion of who would take over as the Assistant head of Gryffindor.

“While I think I’d be OK till the end of the year, I don’t think I could be the only person responsible for all the students full time.” Babbling starts off.

“While I didn’t think of it before, I don’t think I could go back to not having Salman assisting me, it frees up so much of my time for class management tasks, as well as the club I run.”

Flitwick conjured some parchment and a quill, “OK, who can we chose from?”

“Lockhart”

“Kettleburn”

“Trelawney”

“Binns”

Flitwick wrote the last name down and then looked up sharply, “Binns, really?”

“He’s a teacher.” Vector defended.

“Morgana’s left tit, is that it?” Sprout swore.

Flitwick tapped the quill against the tip of his nose, “Looking at those choices, I can see why McGonagall said we needed more teachers. The only one that we know can do the job next year is Trelawney as Kettleburn is retiring this year, Lockharts already burned his chances and Binns is a Merlin forsaken ghost.”

He then did some quick calculations in his head, “Loki’s knut, we also need to decide about Albus now otherwise we need to keep him for the next year. As it stands, if we make the decision today we can’t hire anyone until the last two weeks in August.”

“Why didn’t she just tell us?” Groused Sprout.

Sinistra spoke up for the first time in the meeting, “Because she didn’t want to make the decision for us. Especially after we found out that she’s an apprentice. We had to come to these conclusions ourselves. Who here thinks that Dumbledore would listen to any recommendations that we make?”

“Sorry Salman, but who here thinks that apart from Babbling, he has made any good staffing decisions in the last 13 years?”

“It’s quite aright, much as it galls me, I can freely say that I was vastly underqualified to teach muggle studies. I’m doing better with Cultural studies though. Especially as we were able to get Ms Dursley in to do the guest lecture for the Muggle week, and Kragnast in for the Goblin lectures. That reminds me, after Kragnasts lecture I wanted to strangle Binns, as his history of Goblin rebellions doesn’t match up with theirs.”

Babbling also spoke in her own defence, “I actually completed my Mastery here, and Dumbledore offered me a job on the spot as my teacher was retiring. I was woefully unprepared for teaching, but at least I’d been an assistant for a while.”

“OK, so none of us trust his judgement for hiring people since the war ended. So that’s a vote to suspend the headmaster.”

That evening at dinner, they ensured that the Headmaster was there, and then Minerva led everyone, apart from Snape, in to the great hall with a sealed scroll.

Stopping in front of the table she announced, “Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, we hereby serve you notice of your suspension in accordance with the school charter. We have a majority of the Student Representatives plus the Deputy Headmistresses signature. Please confirm you have received the scroll.”

Shocked Albus takes the scroll and almost drops it.

“As you have taken the scroll, you have six months to appeal our decision to Hogwarts in the Sanctuary, if she upholds your appeal then our positions will be forfeit and you will need to find new people to fill those positions.”

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Azaria spent the next few months scouting out the world as it was now. Retreating every night to the other side of the desert to sleep. She found a few settlements with minor magicals, but the vast numbers that there seemed to be in history didn’t seem to exist. For that matter, she couldn’t find that house from inside this world either, if she didn’t know how to get there from the desert she wouldn’t be able to find it again.

While they were waiting for their targets to lower their guard again, she was made to find some educated non-magical targets for abduction. In that she was unfortunately spoilt for choice, and once she showed her minder he had her show one of their loyal scouts how to get to that city, as 7 million people was too tempting a target. Especially as they hadn’t seen any sign of the defenders of legend, not even the Bloody Rose.

She did find signs of one of the cursed ones moving around to the north of the country, and was sure that if there was no vengeance sought in this world they’d be moving to a different country to avoid it as much as possible.

She managed to leave a letter that says

_The winter court is hunting again, ready your defenders_

But that was all she could do.


	22. Chaper 21

Amelia starts to practice the beginning stages of Occlumency, and tells Moody to find time for Tonks to do it too. Moody takes it one step further and makes her practice it while they’re training using his magic eye to find her if she get’s it wrong. Nobody else signs up for the course as they can all see what Tonks is like at the end of the day.

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The Metropolitan police call in their Auror liaison to look at the scenes of the Winter Court attacks after they’ve been going on for a month, and the police can’t find any pattern what so ever, no gangs, and no signs of forced entry. The Auror is unable to find any traces of magic at the sites until they manage to get a lead that’s only hours old. There they find a very faint trace of magic on the note. The note quickly gets bagged and passed to HQ for analysis hopefully before the trace fades.

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Auror Pulbutt takes over the DADA classes and promptly throws the books out and brings in some Law Enforcement Wizard training manuals, even though they haven’t had the budget to keep that department adequately staffed. Minerva instructs Gringotts to process the refunds taking them from the staff-members of record that approved Lockharts appointment, which were Dumbledore, Malfoy, Nott, Diggory, and Fudge. Due to Dumbledores suspension, Lockhart was kept on staff until his contract ends in June. With zero mentions in the press over the last few months, he becomes even more desperate to prove that he isn’t just a pretty face, and resolves to join the advanced exam in May.

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One evening in March, Lucius Malfoy marches in at the head of the board of Governors holding a Gringotts account statement.

“Headmaster, what is the meaning of this?”

“What is the meaning of what Lucius old boy?”

“We haven’t been paid the correct amount of money for the monthly meetings of the board.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, it’s right here in ink, we were paid substantially less than the agreed amount.”

“Did you check with the Goblins?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m afraid that I have no idea what’s happened.”

Minerva stands up, “Gentlemen I can shed some light on the matter. You see, you may be aware that last year a first year student found a copy of the Hogwarts Charter in a second hand bookshop. We have since been reviewing the rules on that. Imagine our surprise that the board of governors is not actually part of the charter. Once we found that out, we looked into what you actually did, and to our surprise you went from earning 2S a meeting to 10G a meeting over the last 15 years. One of the other things that we found out is that we have a time limit to reverse any decision that the headmaster makes. That time limit is 60 days after we become aware of the decision. For future reference, that decision has to be unanimous amongst all of the Student Representatives, or a majority and the Deputy Headmaster.”

Lucius pales when the pay increase is revealed, and Dumbledore pales at the next statement.

Trying to pull back some dignity, Lucius tries a different argument, “But I didn’t vote to reverse the pay.”

“Ah, but you were never officially a student representative, as the charter specifies that only the Deputy Head can assign Student Representatives. Which as soon as I became aware of the fact I did. The headmaster could have appealed to Hogwarts to have the decision overturned, but he didn’t. I would offer to introduce you, but for reasons that the headmaster knows, and for his own privacy I don’t think I should divulge, just what that is. If he chooses to do so, that’s down to him. But that aside, taking you somewhere you can meet Hogwarts will almost certainly be a death sentence for anyone that bares the dark mark, whether you were imperioused or not. It is also currently too dangerous to take any of you there at the moment, but if those of you without a dark mark wish to come back during the day I can certainly take you to see her.”

“I will take you up on that young lady.” Madam Longbottom says clearly

Diggory steps forward, “What about this 600G deduction I have on my account?”

Minerva again stand to speak, “According to the Hogwarts charter, all new staff must be tested for competency by the staff of the school. However, in the event that an incompetent staff member is appointed, and a substitute needs to be called in. If they do not approve of the course materials that the students needed to buy for that teacher, the staff that approved the decision and the Headmaster, who holds final say on all hiring and firing even if we can veto decision, will be held personally liable for the cost of those supplies and they will be refunded to the students from their personal accounts. Given that we just provided the Goblins with a certified copy of the charter, and Lockhart’s contract, if there’s an error in that amount you’ll need to take it up with them.”

To the sound of student’s cheers, the board of directors minus Madam Longbottom left with their pride in tatters.

Once the cheers died down, Madam Longbottom spoke, “Congratulations Minerva, I hope that this means that the education level will be returning to the standards we had when I attended.”

“I believe that Neville’s progress will show that we intend to exceed those standards Madam.”

“Then I will be watching your progress eagerly. Pray tell, who is the new headmaster going to be?”

“We don’t know yet madam, as there currently isn’t anyone that can actually fill the requirements of the charter, though we are working on finding someone suitable and training them up next year.”

“Carry on then.” With that Madam Longbottom turned and left.

Albus watched her leave and wondered just how she knew that he was being fired.

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While most of the students are on holiday, Albus is glumly packing up the place that has been his home for the better part of 50 years. He picks up the trinket that he made to tell Harry’s health when he was a baby, and starts to cry when he realises that it’s showing an indeterminate result. Sniffing, he tries to shore up his Occlumency barriers so that he stops crying but he can’t quite manage it. Shuffling over to his trunk he goes to put the trinket in there when an elf pops in.

“Hoggywarts says that that is not yours. You can take the trinket but the blood stays behind.”

It then pops out, and back in a few minutes later while he’s still looking at it and his trunk thoughtfully.

“Shes alsos saying that if you try to take anything that’s not yours again we’s to kick you out and not let you in until everything that is not yours has been removed.”

Suddenly he feels the wards he placed on the bathroom go off. 

Hurrying out of the door as fast as he could, he calls out to Fawkes, “Fawkes, it’s time.”

When he gets to the bathroom he’s too late to catch whoever it is, but he’s just in time to throw an aresto at the closing opening of the secret entrance. Hurtling down a shaft, he quickly casts a light down the tunnel as well as an aresto on himself to buy time to think. A cushioning charm at the bottom and he’s down safe and comfortable. A quick cleaning charm and he’s also got rid of the slime.

Disillusioning himself he casts a rare variation of the light spell that makes a light that’s only visible to the caster, and carefully picks his way down the tunnel. As he gets further down he can here two voices arguing about something, and as he get in sight of the chamber they’re in the more masculine voice seems to win. Quickly stepping in he sees a statue on the far side starting to open it’s mouth. Transfiguring the bones strewn across the floor into a large granite block in front of the hole stops him from needing to deal with two problems.

The body of a first year Slytherin turns around to face him, face slack and eyes blazing red with anger.

“Hello headmaster, you got old.”

Wracking his brain to place the voice he temporises with, “Time tends to do that to everyone eventually.”

“Not everyone old man.”

“Well you would know Tom wouldn’t you.”

“So, you worked it out, now what? Are you going to kill me?”

“Not at all.”

“What about the girl?”

“An unfortunate sacrifice that needs to be made if we’re both going to get out from Nyarlathotep’s thumb. Him! Him, why couldn’t I say Him”

“You idiot why did you even try to refer to…” Tom frantically runs past Albus trying to get to the entrance before something bad happens.

The sound of shod feet crushing bone from behind Albus tells him that it was too little too late.

“Oh Albus, you bought me dinner and a snack, is this a date?”

“No, No, leave I didn’t summon you.”

“Oh, but you did. My name is a summons in and of itself if the person is magical enough.”

He caresses Toms face, a black sickly looking blob pulling away from it with glowing blue strands hanging from the end.

“And such a lovely sacrifice too, a piece of my previous servant who tried to escape me.”

The body that Tom was possessing falls limply to the floor, and while IT is focused on Albus, Fawkes flames in and then out with the body.

“Such troublesome things Phoenixes, absolutely incorruptible, and able to go anywhere they’ve ever been before.”

Albus tries to raise his wand, to say something apparate, or activate one of his emergency portkeys, but he is frozen in place.

“Don’t go, especially after you’ve brought me something so very precious.” He rubs the black blob down Albus’ face as he talks.

“Please take a seat and we’ll chat while I work out a suitable reward for both sacrifices, even if one was stolen from me. Oh, but I could take that delicious morsel behind your stone block instead. 1,000 year aged basilisk is such a rare treat.”

If he could blanch he would, instead he finds himself sitting in a plush leather chair a table with a steaming cup of tea on it, just the way he likes it.

“I know, I will give you three gifts. The first is for the failed sacrifice, and that is the way out that you so sorely desire. If you find the original Necronomicon, it has the instructions inside that you need to remove my mark.”

It pretends to think while they both drink tea.

“The second will be the gift of the basilisk. You will start out being able to speak to snakes, and then it’s other magical gifts will begin to grow in. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, so I’ll leave you find out just what they are and how long they will take to mature.”

He licks the part of Tom’s soul on his finger like a lollypop.

“The last will be a gift of knowledge, no, power after all you have the elder wand for a reason. But what power do you want, not brute, otherwise you would have joined your lover. No, you like to be trusted, to have the power of your voice, to have people see you as their friend, or a favoured grandfather. Yes, I will gift you with the power to dissemble, to those weaker than you, you will be able to appear as whoever and whatever you wish.”

Suddenly the world seems to blink and It is standing in front of him it’s finger lowing towards his forehead, and the world explodes into pain.


	23. Chaper 22

Fawkes flames into a large circular room with a glowing white crystal floating above a large Hogwarts crest. The child in his grasp gently placed with her head next to the stone. A woman of moderate build and proportions steps out. Her long thick black hair tied back with a ribbon and falling in waves down her back. She looks down at the child with eyes that have seen too much suffering.

“It’s so hard to remember just how fragile they are when they’re at this stage. But then things like this happen and I remember why I gave my body and magic for the school.”

Fawkes trills softly.

“I know, it’s hard for you too, especially because you come from so close to the sea. No, I’m not making fun of you. Trying to make me laugh isn’t going to work at the moment. Look at her, her soul is shredded and if we don’t fix it now the bits that chaos didn’t pull out will fester and start to corrupt her.”

Fawkes squarks as if to say it’s my fault.

“No it isn’t. It’s the fault of complacency and time. I’ve seen it happen in countries before all over the worlds, people become sure that the threats have gone, and so they stop pushing out. They stop training Magi, and then the Magi leave and the warlocks no longer have a safe way to train. Not that the warlocks can do much, but they can give people warning.”

She collapses by the child and rolls her over, and cries.

“I’m not going to let China happen again, I’m not going to let things go back to the they were when I became a warlock. Once Albus is gone we must reactivate the old wards, will you help once again old friend?”

Fawkes sings a song of defiance.

“I know it almost killed them, but this place must be a sanctuary where we can train the new War Locks and Magi in peace. I think we are also the last sanctuary around too, but I’ve felt the ripples of something familiar to the south, but until we get those wards up I won’t be able to tell where.”

Fawkes sings again.

“You’re right, it’s time to live now, and now Nicole needs our help. Poor girl, she tried so hard, and yet if she succeeded she’d have died anyway and put other children in danger. Can you take this to Minerva for me, it explains that I’ve got Nicole and I’m currently healing her. She’ll be ready to leave in a week Nest time.”

As she starts to remove the taint from the wounds in her soul, she whispers, “Oh you poor child, you should never have to bear the weight of things like this. That burden should fall to people like me.”

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Minerva received the letter from Hogwarts and read it. Then the blood drained from her face as she collapsed to her knees, tears streaming down her face for the death of the friend she’d had for the last 40 years as a colleague.

“Oh Albus, you could never leave anything alone could you. If there was something going on you had to be involved, had to know, and had to appear to be in charge.”

Pulling herself together, she got up and, ignoring the stares of the students in the corridor around her, she went to find the elves and ask them to remove everything that didn’t belong to Albus from his office, and she meant everything. They were to also stop him from having any contact with anyone else in the school. She showed the letter from Hogwarts, and once they saw it they agreed.

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_Secondary school science teacher wanted_

_Required to A level_

_Chemistry and Physics_

_Recommended to GCSE or A Level_

_Philosophy and critical thinking_

_Our client is an exclusive boarding school_

_Deep in the Scottish highlands_

_It and the nearby village are too remote_

_For electricity or Telephone_

_Water comes from a local reservoir_

_Room and board will be provided_

_But only the teacher can be accommodated_

_An interest in mythology will be very helpful_

_Please send Address, Covering Letter & CV_

_To PO Box GT10923 London_

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Amelia was sure she was starting to pull her hair out. Who ever this winter court lot were, they’d spawned a copy cat in Dublin. Much as she hated to do it, she’d also got the DoM involved. However, they had nothing. They’d managed to narrow down the window that they were operating to so…me…wh…ere around Midnight.

Standing up abruptly she went to the floo urgently and floo’d Hogwarts. Not getting an answer she Floo’d to the three broomsticks and fair ran to the entrance hall of Hogwarts.

“Somebody. Anybody. I. Need. To. Talk. To. Mc. Gonagall. Urgently.” She panted.

A house elf popped in and handed her a glass of water, “Professor Kitty is on her way.”

A few minutes later a cat came jumping down the stairs and transformed into the professor.

“Good Morning Amelia, what’s so urgent that you’d run all the way here?”

“There are nightly abductions in muggle london, and we find these messages at the scene.” She hands over one of the letters.

“I need to know if there’s anything you know or can do to help.”

“This doesn’t ring any bells to me, I’ll go and see if Hogwarts is available, but she might be busy as Albus caught the perpetrator of the petrification’s, but one of the students was badly hurt in a way that only Hogwarts could heal. Be very careful of him, as he has fallen afoul of something very dark from out there, much darker than these abductions. Fawkes rescued the child from that things presence, but had to leave albus behind because he’d already had contact with it.”

She disappears in front of Amelia, and returned a moment later. 

“She couldn’t stop for more than a moment as time runs differently where she’d doing the healing. But she said pure iron will help, the sort used for ingredient storage if you need to talk to a magical blacksmith. And research Sidhe, that’s S I D H E and old fairytales. I think Petunia and Karen were doing that, so you might want to call in on them. Oh, and before you ask, I’ve been categorically told that I’m nowhere near ready to face one Sidhe let alone an abduction pack so don’t run off and try to be a hero.

“Do me a favour and when you talk to them, remember that I’m a fully qualified witch and warlock with 50 years of experience and I’m not ready. They might have gone further in the dream, but everything they’ve learnt about magic has been self taught. Don’t ask them to be heroes.”

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Professor Sprout walked up to the gates of the Emrys Academy in the depths of Snowdonia. It was a rather unassuming building, looking to be a converted Victorian manor house. Looking over the door she spotted a bell pull, and pulled it out moderately hard. A moment later a young man in a teachers robe opened the door.

“Can I help you?”

“Good Morning, I’m Pomona Sprout, and I’ve got an appointment with your Headmistress.”

“Oh, certainly, come right in and I’ll lead you to her office.”

A few minutes later she was seated in a utilitarian office across from a middle aged witch with a serious look on her face.

“How may I help a Hogwarts Professor?”

Sprout winces slightly at the dig, “I must confess that I was not actually aware of the existence of this school, neither were any of the other teachers. So, once we found out we wanted to know how you operated, and if there was anything we had in common or could learn from each other.”

The headmistress couldn’t hide the surprise on her face at that confession, “How is it that you didn’t know about an entire school?”

“From what we can gather, it because of the likes of the traditionalist faction in the wizengamot, as many of them are known to be rather quick with their wands when they feel insulted even if no insult was intended. As such it became a habit of people to ask if you went to Hogwarts, and rely on people to say no rather than ask the other options. Which leads to now, where we’ve been Alumni, Muggleborn and Scholarship only for so long that the teachers were all students there.”

“If it wasn’t for the fact that you’re sitting here now, I’d have called that story fanciful. I’m Headmistress Anne Bellship, pleased to meet you.”

“While you already know who I am, I’m Pomona Sprout. One of the reasons that I’m hear is that we’re going to be restructuring the way that classes are split up from third year on up, with a class dedicated to those that are acceptable or worse students, and a class for Exceeds or better, where we will push them faster. So we were wondering if you’d come across that problem and how you dealt with it.”

“We do the same, although there’s always one or two bright kids that we just can’t teach and also teach everyone else.”

“How soon are you able to identify those children?”

“Usually in first year, and no later than second. After that they’ll have become disillusioned and just stopped trying.”

“Do you charge tuition here?”

“We do, though it’s also subsidised by the Ministry.”

“What I’m going to suggest I will need to pass by everyone else, but I can’t see them having a problem with it. Would it help you if we were able to take them off your hands for the same tuition fee as they’re currently paying. As I presume there’s usually going to be a stupid reason they don’t have a scholarship anyway.”

“Oh that there is, their parents don’t know and so they can’t teach their children what they need to know to pass the test.”

“We have our fair share of those, it’s why our quality has been dropping over the decades. That and other internal problems. How about things that you need?”

“Maintenance, even though we’re a day school, most of our time during holidays like this is spent just repairing the school, whether because of accidental magic, tomfoolery, or classes going wrong. It’s amazing how much damage a log can do when the student transfigures it into one plank of the same amount of wood instead of 6 planks.”

“I can see that. Do you not teach the basic classes then?”

“What do you mean?”

“Charms and Transfiguration separately.”

“Ah, no. When they set up the school the Ministry thought that it would be better to have a more practical bent to our classes, so we don’t have a dedicated class for the major subjects, instead we have classes for the major uses of spells in every day life.”

“Wait, does that mean that you don’t have a defence class?”

“No, that’s combined with care of magical creatures and only really focuses on identifying and dealing with common pests and threats such as boggarts and doxys. Which is another thing that could be helpful, we don’t exactly have a large range of magical creatures around here, so if we could visit a few times a year for practical classes that would be great.”

“Again, I don’t see a problem with that, I’ll just have to clear it with everyone else and Hagrid the groundskeeper. Do you think it would help if my fellow professors came and gave a guest lecture once or twice a year about different aspects of our specialities?”

“I’d have to talk to my department heads, but possibly.”

“You said that you have problems with accidental magic, why’s that?”

“Not much we can do to stop it, just delay it, if we see it coming we can give them a calming draft and get them somewhere safe, but beyond that it just happens occasionally, and if it’s bad enough a calming draft won’t help anyway. But they still need teaching.”

“Hogwarts has wards that prevent that from being a problem, so I’ll get Minerva to see if Hogwarts knows them and has them written down anywhere. If they do, maybe we could work together to get them setup here.”

“I’ve heard you have a lot of house-elves at Hogwarts.”

“We do, I think we had 120 last time someone counted, though it’s recently become much more difficult to get an accurate count. But to forestall the next question, according to the charter they are all free elves, and Hogwarts was partially set-up as a sanctuary. So all I could do is pass on a request, and if they agree they’ll fulfil it. They do get paid a couple of sickles a month so that they can club together to buy the freedom of other elves though, so throwing that in there may help.”

Their conversation continued into the afternoon, and included a tour of the school, where Pomona helped with the garden, and gave some tips for different layouts of the plants they were growing for potions ingredients. She returned to Hogwarts with pages of notes, and it looked like the headmistress had lots of her own as well.


	24. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was going to be more going on, but it ended up being almost pure fluff.

John Major is sat with his cabinet and is holding his head in his hands. Amelia Bones is sitting as a guest to one side.

“OK, we are now moving onto the subject of the disappearances occurring all over London. As this is going to be touching on things to do with national security I need to ask that all members that don’t have top secret security clearance leave.”

Once every one has left that doesn’t have clearance he slumps back into his seat.

“Please tell me you have something.”

The police and mi5 representatives all shake their heads.

“Madam Bones.”

“I have something, but even for us it’s folklore. But we also have some historical documents that back it up, not that there are many people that can read old English these days.”

“Don’t tell me we’re going to be listening to fairy tales now.” One of the serious looking police officers says.

“Given that my source has said that we need pure iron to disrupt their attacks, and they are operating at a time of night that is literally a death sentence for most of my people if we are awake then. What else could it be? Except when those tales were made, our people’s weren’t separated so we could come to each others aid. We are discovering that some of our own fairy tales are actually true two, and have found the means to train people to track and eventually combat them. But it’s not without risk, apparently taking the first step on the path can be deadly. A muggle-born I know suggested that I say this. Gentlemen, we are not alone. Only the aliens are not out there, they are instead sideways to the earth in different dimensions. I hope it means more to you than me.”

“I suppose you can prove this?”

“I have been to a different realm if that counts.”

John major butts in, “Everyone, we need to assume that Madam Bones knows what she is talking about, and as far as she knows is telling the truth. I want to have a few specials on Irish mythology, and maybe we can do a special run on coins or something for it. But if this is going to be a worsening problem then we need a more permanent solution.”

An mi5 scientist speaks up, “we can make pure iron to 99.9% purity on industrial scales, so I don’t think the purity will be something we need to worry about. It’s the distribution. Will plating the iron reduce it’s effectiveness.”

“I don’t know, if you can get me some samples I can take them to a blacksmith and have them evaluated. But that’s the best I could do.”

“If plating works, then we already use iron in our copper coins, why not plate the silver ones?”

“Could we make purer iron cookware fashionable with some sort of marketing accreditation and a few cooks like Delia Smith using them?”

The meeting continued into brainstorming, and in a few months they would be gearing up to do a massive coin drop for Lughnasa on the first of August and the BBC would run a series of programs on Celtic Mythology. 

Once the meeting is over, John Major asked Amelia to wait for a moment with the M department rep.

“Yes?”

He hands over a newspaper opened to an advert, “Is this your lot?”

“I honestly don’t know, but it could be. I know that the Deputy of the school is bringing up standards, and from what my niece has written to me, a couple of the students are continuing their muggle education through home schooling. Apparently that was very interesting to her new head of house, to the point where they were pushing the Hogwarts house harder and faster than they could cope with for a while. In the demonstration class, the Deputy had the students turn their matchsticks into magnesium and lit it to test the purity. I have to confess I don’t actually know what that means.”

The M rep blanches, and then looks at John Major to see if he’s caught the implications, then makes a note to explain it to him after she leaves.

“How are they going to get around the Statute of Secrecy problem?”

“Probably by ensuring that they’re magical when they start teaching.”

John Major sighs, “Let them know that we’ll provide a location to do the interviews, and we need to do a background check on everyone that they want to interview.”

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Nicole woke up in a plush bed, a kind looking woman sitting beside her. At the centre of the room she could see a glowing white crystal floating above the floor. She thought that she must be dead, and so she scrunched up and started crying.

“Hush child, you’re safe and you’re healing. Once you’ve healed you can go home.”

“Where am I?” She ventures through her tears.

“You’re in my heart chamber in the Sanctuary.”

Fawkes, perched on the crossbar at the top of the bed, trilled a song of hope, causing Nicole to look up from her tears.

“You’re so pretty, what sort of bird is that?”

“Fawkes is a phoenix, and has been a friend of mine for a very long time.”

Calming down at Fawkes song, Nicole looks around a little more alertly.

“Who are you? Are you an angel?”

Hogwarts laughs, “No child, I’m Hogwarts, and I was once as human as you. Though I sacrificed my body to protect the school.”

“Like the Hogwarts that’s now the head of my friends house?”

“Yes, that Hogwarts.”

“I tried to join them, but I just couldn’t.”

“Now that I’ve removed the taint from the soul shard you were holding onto, you should find that you can join easily enough.”

“Will you be my friend, it’s been so lonely without them around?”

Hogwarts laughs, “Yes, I’ll be your friend.”

Fawkes’ tune takes on an anticipatory tone.

“Thank you.” Nicole crawls across the bed and hugs her, somehow ending up sitting in her lap, as she holds her.

As Nicole was so close, Hogwarts automatically continued the painstaking process of putting her soul back together and rebuilding the bits that had been ripped out when the soul shard was ripped out.

“When can I go back?”

Hogwarts looked down at her to check her progress, “In a week or so, you’ve got a lot of healing left to do.”

“I’m going to miss so much school, and the teachers will be mad.”

Nicole’s expression brightens, “You’re a teacher, would you be able to teach me what I need to know?”

“Yes child, I can teach you.”

The anticipation in Fawkes’ song becomes positively on edge and takes on a laughing note.

The two of them sit there for a while as Nicole thinks about what’s happened and what she’s missed, then she starts crying again.

“What’s the matter child?”

“I was supposed to go home for Christmas, but I didn’t.”

“You did, same as everyone else.”

“But I don’t remember that, surely I should remember something like that.”

“Your body and your soul are linked, and it took a lot of the memories you made since you came into contact with it. If it had gone on longer, the shock may have killed you instantly. As it stands, if Fawkes hadn’t brought you here you would have died anyway.”

“Thank you for saving my life.”

“You’re most welcome child.”

“I miss my mum and dad.”

“Then you shall be as my own… While you’re here. Stop laughing Fawkes, it’s not funny.”

As she finished the word ‘own’ there was a flash of magic as the acknowledged life debt was fulfilled, and her magic filled in the spaces of Nicole’s soul with bits of Hogwarts’ soul, and she was magically adopted. Fawkes, having seen this coming literally fell off the beam laughing.

“You know this could have happened to you.” She said slightly waspishly at the still laughing phoenix.

“What happened Hogwarts?” Nicole asked

“What do you know about magical debts child?”

“Not much, only what they said in the stories. Such as when Snow White found her true love after she saved the prince, and then he saved her when her step mother gave her the poisoned apple.”

“Magical debts are formed when you do something significant for someone without any expectation of payment and they acknowledge it.”

“So, does that mean that I owe mummy and daddy?”

“No child, as they are the reason you exist. Even if you were adopted, it would only be a minor debt that you’d probably pay off one day without even knowing it. It’s impossible to force a magical debt, as to cause the circumstances that would cause the debt would cause your own magic to reject it. There are things out there that can force something similar on you if you acknowledge they have power over you, but it’s a corrupting thing and will twist your soul.”

“What happened then?”

“You became my child.”

“Does that mean that I don’t have mummy and daddy anymore?”

“No child, it means that you have two mummies and a daddy.”

“Oh, that’s good, more mummies and daddies is a good thing. Why did you say this could have happened to Fawkes?”

Fawkes stops laughing and gives her a look as if to say ‘Don’t you dare’

“Fawkes saved your life first, by removing you from a situation that was dangerous for both of you and bringing you to me.”

“Oh, thank you Fawkes, I like being alive.”

Fawkes flames out in a huff.

“Why did he go?”

“As you grow older you’ll find that debts that are owed to you become heavy things when you know they exist, because of the power that they give you over someone. You just acknowledged a life debt to him, and so he now has the power to make you do a lot, but as a creature of purity, he won’t abuse it. Same as if I’d been more aware of when you acknowledged the debt between us I’d have been more careful. I think that only having Fawkes to talk to for a few hundred years has left me careless, as first I take Minerva as an apprentice and now I adopt you.”

“That sounds lonely, I won’t ever leave you alone.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Then I’ll get good enough so that I can keep it.”

Hogwarts laughs, “You do that child, and if you still want to make that promise, I’ll be a fool to stop you.”

Nicole suddenly has a thought, “Mummy, can we get Filch a new cat, as he seems so sad without his one. And he sat with me once while I was trying to use a crest. I don’t know why the older students say that he’s mean.”

“Of course we can, I think there are some in the forest here, so why don’t we try to find one for him when Fawkes comes back and can go with you. Don’t go onto the ice though. As that’s outside my wards and I can’t protect you there.”

“Thank you mummy.”

“You’re welcome, as for why the older students think he’s mean, it’s because until last year he didn’t have a purpose for being here. Oh, he was the caretaker in name, but there was nothing he was actually needed for. But last year he found out that there were things that the witches and wizards couldn’t do, and it was his job to care for them during that time. Think what it was like for you when you were bullied, do you think it would have been easy to be mean back if you ever had the opportunity?”

“I think so.” She said while imagining kicking Draco in the shins.

Hogwarts laughs, “Come on you, as you’re all healed up, let me show you my home and you can pick your own bedroom. Though you’ll need to become a magi if you want to visit on your own. I’ll let you into a secret, you’re going to find that easier than most because you’ve already been here.”

Nicole and Hogwarts spend a fun filled few days getting to know each other, though she slept an enchanted sleep for 24 hours while it was night there. They managed to find a small black cat that had two tails and could teleport a couple of meters (yards). Nicole had a fun few hours trying to catch it before Hogwarts stepped in to help. She then talked Nicole through the words needed to bind it to her as a familiar. She then taught her the minor blood ritual for transferring the bond to other people, and practiced it with her until she could do it with no hesitation. She assured Nicole that it worked on non-magicals as well, as that’s how some of the old heroes had received their famous magical steeds. Perseus and Pegasus comes to mind, though he always left that bit out of his story. Finally, it was time for her to return to the rest of the school.

It wasn’t all play, though even when Hogwarts was teaching her she made it fun, like playing cats cradle without touching the string, or when she brought some of the snow in and they had a snowball fight. Or when she had to play tag with her cat, and she learnt how to skip space like the cat did, as it was the only way to tag him. Her mother promised that they’d be able to get another cat once she’d given this one to Filch.

“Mummy?”

“Yes child?”

“Why can’t we learn magic like this in school?”

“Let me ask you a question. How do you tag the cat when you’re playing?”

“I skip the space between us so that I’m closer before he can react.”

“And how do you do that?”

“I don’t know, I just do.”

“Now, how do you levitate a feather in class?”

“Erm. You move your wand like this and say the right words.”

“Why does that work?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember.”

“So, you know you can tag your cat by skipping space, but you don’t know how it works. You also know how to levitate a feather in class, and that there’s a reason why it works rather than just because it does.”

“Ok?”

Sighing, Hogwarts conjures a wall next to them.

“You knowing how to skip space is like that wall, it’s there and it’s a wall. However, learning to cast spells in class is like learning to build a wall.”

She then conjures bricks, and uses them to build a wall.

“Once you know how and why something works you can do other things with it.”

She then makes the bricks form an oven, then a small house, then an enclosure, then a seat, then a trough, and more and more shapes.

“So, freeform magic that you used to learn to catch the cat, and magical control that you need to play cats cradle are both very important. But, if that’s all you know you are far more limited than if you understand the underlying reasons why they work. So knowledge, power, and practice all go hand in hand, and when you combine them all with imagination. Well then you don’t need bricks to build anymore, as you can do almost anything.”

She vanished the bricks and replaced them with a pile of sand which lifted up into the air and formed a glittering sculptured fountain with runs, falls, and tunnels threading throughout so that the water formed pretty patterns and sounded musical as it fell.

“Remember child, knowledge for the sake of knowing is useless, but when it’s combined with skill, practice and experience it becomes something much, much more. Then you are only limited by your imagination and the few laws of the world that are inviolate. Of which there are far fewer than people realise, as most of the limits they’ve found are actually about understanding than magic.

“Anyway, enough serious stuff, go and pull in some snow and make a snow Flitwick, make sure you don’t leave the wards though.”

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Minerva was most confused when Hogwarts appeared in her office one evening.

“My apprentice I have a task for you.”

“Yes master, how may I serve?”

“I need you to deliver two letters to Nicole Moody’s parents and arrange for them to visit either tomorrow afternoon or the day after, in the afternoon. When they arrive bring them up to The Library.”

“Yes master, may I ask why they’re being asked for?”

“You’ll find out when they get here.” Then she vanished.

A few minutes later Fawkes dropped off both letters and vanished again.

She sighed, this was one of the more frustrating aspects of an apprenticeship, though this was the first time Hogwarts had done it. She well remembered the apprenticeship she accepted in order to get her Transfiguration Mastery. Putting down her work, she left to the Nest to go and deliver the letters and arrange the meeting.

The next day the three of them were in an antechamber in The Library, Sophia was dabbing at her eyes with a hankey, while Derek was sitting stoically. Fawkes flamed in with Nicole, who was holding a black cat.

“Mum! Dad! You came.”

Minerva blinked and her head twitched, as suddenly Nicole was hugging her mother and she didn’t see her cross the intervening space. Hogwarts appeared standing off to one side.

“I’ve missed you.”

“We’ve missed you too sweetheart, but you were home for Christmas.”

“I don’t remember Christmas dad because of what hurt me, but new Mummy saved me. Mum, I’d like you to meet Mummy. She’s the best just like you, though I don’t think she knows how to cook, so you still have the bestest cakes. Maybe you could share them with her. She taught me to play cats cradle, play tag with the cat we found for Mr Filch, and also how to throw snowballs without my hands getting cold. Mummy I’d like you to meet Mum. She’s great, she makes the best cakes when I’ve been good, and she used to sing me to sleep when I was younger, and read to me. I hope you both like each other.”

The adults all looked at her with amusement as she babbled and then dragged Sophia over to meet Hogwarts. Though Derek gave Minerva a look that said they would be having words as soon as she was no longer there.

Sophia came to the rescue, “Nicole, thank you for introducing me to your new mummy, didn’t you say that the cat was for Mr Filch?”

“It is, we haven’t named him as Mummy said that it should be his job.”

“And she was right too, why don’t you go and find Mr Filch and give him the cat?”

“I can do that, Mummy can I use the crests now?”

“As long as you remember not to come here after curfew until you’ve passed the test. You’ve been practicing for long enough.”

“Thank you Mummy. Mum, Dad, watch this.”

With that she skipped over to a crest on the wall and, after making sure that they were watching, she closed her eyes and concentrated and a moment later disappeared.

“Is she OK, where is she?”, Sophia started to panic slightly.

“She’s fine, she’s returned to the main school, and is now running around looking for Filch.” Hogwarts reassured her.

Derek ran out of patience, “OK, now that she’s gone, would someone please explain what’s going on?”

Minerva lead them back into the room and took a seat, “Over the year we’ve had a series of petrification’s. We closed the school over Christmas so that the DMCC could go over the school and grounds to try and find whatever caused it. Several days ago, Albus managed to track the creature back to it’s lair, and confronted the controller. This turned out to be Nicole being possessed by a dark artefact. Once it’s influence had been removed Fawkes, the phoenix that you just saw, took her directly to Hogwarts for healing.”

“And how does that end up with Nicole having a new Mother.”

“That’s my fault. Once the worse of the damage was healed, I woke her up so that she could move around a bit before I continued healing her. While we were talking she found out that I saved her life, and thanked me for it. I was then careless with my words and the remaining wounds in her magic were healed by the adoption. She’d have been gone for another 5 days your time, though it would be more like a week and a bit for us if I had to continue healing her.”

“Great, a life debt has taken my angel away.”

Sophia laid her hand on Derek’s arm, “No it hasn’t, she’s still our daughter, we’ve just got a new family member. Though you look a little insubstantial to invite around for tea if you don’t mind me saying so.”

Hogwarts laughs, “I no longer have a body, I can conjure one in the Sanctuary but I am the wards of the school that was named after me. So while the offer of tea is appreciated, I’m afraid you would have to come here for it, and unless you were willing to learn to become Magi, you wouldn’t be able to visit. Though I’m sure that Fawkes wouldn’t mind bringing Nicole to visit, especially once she becomes a Novice Warlock and it’s no longer a death sentence if she appears there at night.”

Derek grits his teeth, “As she’ll be here most of the year, do you mind if we have her for holidays?”

Hogwarts smiles a genuine smile, “Not at all, and as she’s now my daughter, she doesn’t need to pay tuition, as I could teach her everything she needs to know if other people objected, and I have an apprentice to teach the wanded subjects.”


	25. Chaper 24

Nicole raced through the halls, Filch’s new cat hot on her heels. After she’d been unable to find him for 15 minutes she decided to slow down and turned it into a game. She stalked around the halls as though she was hunting, and skipped over corridors that she didn’t want to go down. After an hour she’d completely forgotten what she was looking for and was just enjoying sneaking around and surprising people. Sometimes slipping from one school to the other to avoid a particularly populated area. The cat Yowled at her when ever she did that and forgot to take it with her. It was dinner time when she accidentally bumped into Filch and suddenly remembered what she was doing.

“Mr Filch! Wait.”

“Whatcha want?” he growls as he turns around.

“Sorry, it’s just you seemed so sad when you said you were missing Mrs Norris, so I got Mummy to help me find you a new cat.”, she holds the cat out.

“Sorry lass, I didn’t realise it was you. A couple of students thought it would be funny to leave me blind in the middle of the castle earlier, so…”

“Oh, no! Are you OK?”

“Aye, I’m fine, just had to wait for a teacher to come by, ain’t the first time, and probably won’t be the last.”

“But that’s not right!”

“The world very rarely is lass, and it’s a lesson I hope you never need to learn.”

“Oh. Well would you still like the cat, you’ll need to sit down so that I can give him to you.”

“I would like that thank you.” He takes a seat on a nearby stair.

“Ok, you need to hold him, and then I’ll do the transfer.” She pricks her thumb on one of the cats teeth, and then places her bloody thumb on Filch’s forehead as she speaks the words that Mummy made her learn.

“There you go, just remember that he’s a boy when you come up with a name.”

“Thank you lass, I think he’ll be Mr Snow.”

“But he’s black…”

“I know, that’s the point.”

“I don’t get it.” Nicole pouts

“Don’t worry you will when you’re older.” He ruffles her hair, suddenly much happier than he was five minutes ago.

“Let’s get you to dinner and you can tell all your friends about your day.”

They were almost at the Main Hall when she stopped and looked at him.

“Have you thought about asking a house elf to accompany you on your rounds. Then you can teach them what you do and why, and they can watch out for bullies and get them in trouble.”

“I did once a long time ago, but they were just ordered to leave and it was worse. But they’re free now, so maybe I’ll give it another go.”

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The next two weeks passed in a blur for Nicole, as during the week she spent almost every waking moment catching up on her classwork and filling in the gaps. Her wand stopped working for her, so her mummy made her a silver and ivory wand focus to use instead. During her free periods she could be found in one of the libraries in the library either chatting with other members of house Hogwarts or doing her homework with her mummy. Weekends were the best though, as she spent 4 days every weekend with mummy, they found her a new cat, that she named Rose after one of her new mummy’s old titles. 

They also played and had lessons as play, one of her favourites was when her mummy taught her a spell to create a sound and coloured light. However, the colour of the light and the sound went up and down as she varied the level she had her magic, while the volume and brightness changed with the amount of magic she pushed into the spell. Her mummy could play beautiful music with it, but she could only make it do a few notes at the moment. She then played the ‘Como poden’ from Cantigas de Santa Maria, and proved that she could indeed sing as well, all with the same basic spell. When she made fairies dance in the air in time to the music she privately promised that one day she’d be able to do this for her.

Her friendship with Luna, Ginny, and Dudley rebloomed and she was even allowed to have them visit her new Mummy a few times. Though the fact that Dudley was a year older, or the only boy in the group did pop-up occasionally, but Ginny always got him to join back in.

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Penny had lots of time to think while she could do nothing but stare at the ceiling and listen to the radio. At first she blamed herself for not turning to run when Nick warned her. Then she blamed herself for not knocking Nicole out when she had the chance. Then she realised that there was nothing she could have done against the giant snake, and none of her options would have been good. She mourned the lost time that the children she was escorting had lost during the term. Then she resolved to be stronger, better, and put her knowledge into practice so that she wouldn’t freeze in the future. At the moment she only saw one way to achieve that, and that was to join the Hogwarts house. To hell with her NEWTs, she could finish those after school. She couldn’t join the Hogwarts house after school. One night in May her body was covered in a golden glow as she made a vow on her magic to become the strongest, most knowledgeable, and practiced magic user she could without staining her soul, with the purpose of being able to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

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Lockhart had got to the point where meditating was effortless, and time passed almost without notice. His wand movements became smoother and sharper and he had never felt more healthy in his life. He flipped and spun the emblem that proved his position in the school. While they might have replaced him, they still couldn’t fire him because the Headmaster was on the way out. That gave him the time to prove that he was as great as he painted his image.

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Harry was enjoying life, and in the back of her mind she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. She’d been assured that this was normal for people that had been abused as recently as she had, but she was still sure that there was something coming. Both she and Hermione had got to the point where their sewing was now a matter of being able to visualise what they were going to sew than any concentration spent on the actions anymore. She could see that Lavender, Parvati and Daphne were all close to that too, as they only glanced down at what they were doing occasionally. She was surprised at how much easier wanded spells were coming now. Though potions, herbology, and history were still hard. DADA was so much better now that they had a decent teacher, and any lingering respect that students had for Lockhart had vanished a couple of weeks into the new lessons.

Nicole was an absolute breath of fresh air, she was so full of life and eager to learn. Even Hermione was happy to talk to her as her seemingly endless curiosity led her down new avenues of looking at spells than she’d had before.

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“Bottom Nest, Middle Armoury, High Library”

Minerva was in hell, she was absolutely certain that was true. Hogwarts had taken her lacemaking pillow away yesterday as she said that she wasn’t pushing her control hard enough. So now she was levitating the lace in one place to one side while she had to change the aspects of her bubble to match the instructions being shouted at her.

“Reverse”

She struggled to reverse the order fast enough to satisfy her Master.

“You Library, left Nest, Middle nest, Top Armoury, Bottom Armoury”

She was sure that Hogwarts was a slave driver, why did she even agree to this again?

“Reverse”

She dropped her lace as she struggled to set her internal magic to the Nest and also reverse the others.

“All Nest, six inch circle wand in figure 8 at Library”

She struggled to follow the instruction, and dropped the wand as her fingers went numb.

“Pick up your lace and take a break.”

“Thank you master”

She gathered up her lace and carefully reset everything to where it should be.

“What do you think went wrong?”

She gathered her thoughts as the soothing click of the bobbins moving around. She’d set her magic to keep her on the nest, and then she’d tried to make a six inch disk, and her fingers had burned and then gone numb.

“I’m sorry master, I don’t know.”

“Ok, we’ll go through it slowly. Make your bubble. Now start to form your disk. Stop, right there. Feel that?”

Minerva closed her eyes and her bobbins stilled as she tried to feel what Hogwarts wanted her to see.

“Try looking at it from the side.”

Slowly turning her wand sideways while keeping the disk anchored, she struggled to see the problem. Ok, it was more of an ellipse at this angle, but that was close enough wasn’t it?

“I’m sorry master, I just can’t see it.”

Hogwarts taps her chin in thought, “I want you to conjure a 3” disk and stick it to the end of your wand, then do it again.”

Minerva does so, and she starts to form the disk the same way she did last time.

“Stop, now look.”

She looked, she really did, and her brain was telling her something was really wrong, but she just couldn’t place it. It was sitting there right on the edge of her consciousness, but she couldn’t see it.

“Ok, lesson’s over, you need to take a break and look at it again later when you no longer have your current expectations. You need to learn to see what’s there, not what you expect.”

“Thank you master.”

“Now that’s over with, how are the meditation classes coming along?”

“I think the teachers will be ready before the end of school, only Babbling is still at the beginning stage and I think that’s because Runes is such a logical process that she’s having trouble letting go.”

“Ah, yes. I remember Rowena could be the same way. Tell her to approach it like she’s just finished a big project and she’s about to launch onto another completely unrelated project. That’s the space she needs to find. Rowena used to switch between Sumerian and Egyptian glyphs a few times to reset her brain.”

“I’ll do that. The NEWT students should be ready for Saturday, and everyone else has been ready for a while. Surprisingly Nicole is ready already.”

“Not really, she’s still at the age where play for the sake of playing is fun, so I’ve given her some basic spells and exercises that require her to be able to modify her magic quickly and easily, the one that she actually remembered for longer than 5 minutes produces sound and light. The colour and pitch of which varies based on where your magic is. Grab your wand and I’ll show you, though you may find that it doesn’t work with normal wands as they force your magic to conform to the signature in the core.”

The next couple of minutes is spent learning the spell. Then an impromptu lesson starts up with her needing to show proficiency with the spell and adjusting it. Then do it wandlessly. Then add an additional spell that she controlled separately, then another and another kept adding until she dropped her lace again.

In addition to her lace she now had to learn to mimic an instrument and play a simple melody, as well as come up with a way to make interesting for first years to learn and want to use outside class.

For the first time in years, she went down to the three broomsticks with the sole intention of having a drink.


	26. Chaper 25

Azaria was starting to despair, as they’d still seen no resistance from the Legendary defenders, and she knew that the brutes that they’d had doing the raids had now where near the subtly that they’d need to be able to pass even the least attentive of their own guards. She hadn’t even been able to leave a warning for the ones they came here for. She did some quick calculations in her head, they’d done almost 60 raids that she’d been involved in, that means that she hadn’t seen her clan for nearly 200 years.

She absently rubbed the iron burns on her wrists where they’d trained her and her clan to be subservient to them with iron cuffs.

The only good news about being the scout was that her English was better now because of the speaking boxes they had in their houses.

“Azaria, you’re in first, and out last do you understand me? Everyone else, we’re going in late this time so it’s grab someone and go, if you’re still there when the curtain closes it’s on you.”

“I understand.” She tried to hide the contempt she had for the one that gave the order, he was stronger than she was having been allowed to travel closer to the sea.

“Ok, last thing, if anyone’s struggling you need to give a 10 second warning. Now Go!”

Azaria stepped into the room with the talking box and found a woman sitting on the long chair, seeing none of her keepers she petrified the woman and lay her down in front of the chair before knocking some of the cushions off to cover her. She then started to ‘search’ the room to see if there was anyone hiding in there.

Once she felt the others leave she hurried over to the woman and uncovered her.

“Listen, you need to find your guards and tell them that cold iron will keep us from just appearing in your homes. Also, they need to get their defenders as the Summer court has started to join in, and if they continue to meet no resistance they will start to bring warbands. This is what iron does to us with prolonged contact, so you can trap us if you have no defenders left. I’m about to release you, once I do, nod if you understand.”

She releases her, and the woman nods.

“I’ve got to go, but not all of their slaves come from this world, remember that.”

She then steps back with seconds to spare.

“What kept you?”

“I found a woman hiding, but she put up a fight and I had to leave or get stuck.”.

Azaria fell to the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood as he backhanded her.

“You should have just killed her. Spread the word, we may be compromised, no more late snatches until we know they haven’t told anyone. Now everyone out of the desert and take these back to the camps.”

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A police officer turns the volume on the TV up for everyone in the office at Scotland yard.

“Welcome back to Good Morning on ITV, It’s now that time that we cover the days headlines. Both The Sun and The Mirror have a stop press and are reporting on a spate of abductions.”

They hold up a paper with the headline **WINTER COURT KIDNAPPERS! SUMMER COURT COMING**.

“As you can see this is a rather sensational headline, however the text of the article is more chilling. We don’t normally go further into the papers, but our producers made an exception for this.”

They turn the paper open to page 5 with the headline **SURVIVOR TELLS THEIR STORY.**

“According to the story, last night a family in East London was abducted, except for the mother. She couldn’t sleep so she was watching late night TV. She reports that she was paralysed and then hidden under the cushions while one of the abductors searched the room. At one point another abductor came in and said something in a foreign language. A few minutes later she was uncovered and a woman with irises that had three rings of colour.

“This woman then told her that cold iron would keep them from appearing inside houses, and iron would keep them trapped if they were in contact with it. She also said that they were being taken as slaves, and they weren’t the only people they were enslaving.

“Our news room is trying to get verification on this, and if we have any news you’ll hear it here first. Now onto the Times…”

The officer switches off the TV, “As you can see, the horse is starting to bolt, and we’ve got 3 months before our efforts can be sent out.”

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Minerva stands up at the breakfast table and clears her throat.

“Good morning everyone, I would like you all to remember that we are running the entrance exam tonight. For those that are taking part, remember to get some rest this afternoon as you’ll be up until 2am. For everyone else, we will be enforcing curfew strictly tonight, so anyone that is caught up will face a week of Dorm restrictions. Remember that for the people participating this is going to be dangerous, so any pranking or sabotage of people that are taking part will result in immediate suspension, and refusal into all exams. That’s it, have a good breakfast.”

As she sits down and continues with her lacemaking and quietly playing with the sound spell, Lockhart stands up.

“Good morning, I would just like to announce that I have been practicing Buddhist meditation since before Christmas, and I am now ready to join this exam.”

Minerva groans, “Lockhart, see me in my office after breakfast, we are going to the DMLE to get a witnessed release statement to say that you understand the risks and have trained for this on your own.”

Hermione was looking at the lights that Minerva was producing and the same lights as Nicole was producing. While there were a couple of mistakes she had them almost spot on.

“Anyone, what’s that game we used to play with the four coloured lights?”

“You’ll need to be a bit more specific Hermione.” Harry says.

“It’s the one where it lights up in a sequence and you then have to repeat the sequence.”

“I think I know the one you’re talking about, I used to have one. It’s round and has 4 colours.”

“Do you mean Simon.” Dean shouts from the Gryffindor table?

“That’s it, watch what Nicole is doing then watch what the Deputy Headmistress is doing.” She points out Nicole.

“She’s playing Simon, but how?”

Hermione gets up and walks over to Nicole, “Nicole, how are you doing that?”

Nicole eeps in surprise as she didn’t think anyone had noticed what she was doing.

“Don’t worry, I just want to know so that I can do it too.”

“It’s a spell that Mummy taught me, but she said it might not work with normal wands.”

“Would you be able to teach me, as I don’t use a normal wand?”

“Ok, do you want to play with me then?”

“I’d love to, so what do I have to do?”

It’s a simple enough spell that it only take Hermione a few minutes to learn, a constant tone comes out as well as a constant light.

“Ok, how do I control it?”

“You change your magic to change the light and sound, and put in more or less magic to change the brightness.”

“Thank you, let me practice with this for while and then I’ll teach you to play simon.”

“That sounds great.”

It takes her longer to teach all of the curious Ravenclaws and get permission from Professor McGonagall to hand out wand blanks from the Armoury than it does for her to realise how to get the spell to produce 3 lights and turn off, as she’s already been changing her magic to those three values for most of the year. It turns out that normal wands output magic at a fixed level, and all they can change is the strength.

“Ok, Nicole, and everyone that’s listening in. The game Simon is based on the older muggle game simon says. However, in Simon instead of following instructions you follow a sequence, and there’s a time limit to do it in. So if I do this sequence, you would need to repeat it when I finish. Now for this game, each person would add an extra change to the sequence. So if it was just Nicole and myself I’d start with a sequence of 4 changes, then Nicole would repeat it, then do it again with 5. It would then come back to me to repeat it, then add another colour. If there’s more people everyone has to repeat the sequence, and the person adding the extra colour just moves around the circle. The last person still able to complete a sequence is the winner, so if you fail to keep up, you’re out.”

One of the audience spoke up, “Wait, so this is a game to improve your memory and ability to repeat and build on information? Why didn’t we already know this?”

Another one spoke up, “Because by the time we learn the spells to change the colour of light we’re already doing other things, look a first year is using this spell because it’s so easy, I can’t wait to work out the arithmancy for it.”

The first one spoke up again, “Nicole, did your Mummy teach you any other games?”

Unused to being the centre of attention after a year of being the pariah, Nicole shrinks back against the Hogwarts table.

Harry stands up and releases a little magic, “Everyone backup, you’re crowding her.”

With a little more space Nicole manages to say, “She taught me to play cats cradle with no hands. Got to go!”

She then skipped space until she got to a crest and went to see her Mummy, with help from Fawkes.

“Hello child.”

“Mummy, why did they do that?”

“Shh, I watched the whole thing, you did really well. They were just overeager, that’s all. It’s what I’d expect from a bunch of children that were placed in that house for their desire to know. Do you want to know what Godric used to call them?”

“Yes please.”

“He called them a bunch of gossiping old hens that hoarded their knowledge like hens do eggs. Rowena wasn’t best pleased with that. But then she called Gryffindors a bunch of meat heads that are so eager to prove they can do something that they won’t even check how high the cliff is before jumping off.”

Nicole giggled.

“Now is this a social visit, or are you just hiding?”

“Well, it is a Saturday, and I was hoping that you would help me stay up late for tonight.”

“Why you little terror.” She then proceeded to tickle Nicole and thus started the morning tickle chase as Nicole skipped away from her giggling and Hogwarts tried not to catch her too easily.

Once Nicole was good and tired, Hogwarts conjured a wand.

“Lets play Simon.”

“Ok Mummy.”

“I’m going to show you 4 colours. Three of the colours you already know, as they’re the ones that Hermione showed you. The forth she would be able to do, but she doesn’t know it. Here’s the secret, the colours that she chose are so easy for her to do because they are the same colours you need to get to the Library, Armoury, and Nest. You should be able to do the colour for the Sanctuary, and you might be able to do the colour for the next world. But first let’s practice the colour for the sanctuary.”

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Minerva looked at the cushions that she’d set up in the courtyard near the large Hogwarts crest over the entrance. As Lockhart had decided to join, Hogwarts and herself decided to do it outside to give themselves the best chance of being able to catch him when he went hurtling off. Hogwarts had made her promise that she wouldn’t go beyond the Library tonight, no matter what happens. They also had Filch standing by, and she’d bought 4 Omniculors, three of which she’d set up for the session, the last one she’d asked Fawkes very nicely if he could take it to Hogwarts to set up in the same place. The DMLE officer had told her privately that it could be helpful if her concerns came to pass.

All the students came out and she directed them to take a seat. She then started the Omniculars so that there was plenty of time. When she got back Lockhart hadn’t shown up, so she hoped that he had chosen to back out.

Her hopes were dashed, as he came out a few minutes before time, his cloak flowing stylishly behind him, the defence emblem flashing across his fingers from one side to the other. The vague hope that he might actually know what he was doing died when she saw the emblem.

“Everyone, silence please. I want you all to start meditating to settle your magic, then we’re going to chat for 5 minutes after it starts. Filch if anyone starts to fade before I say they can start, knock them out. You might want to stand there initially.” She indicates just behind Lockhart

“Lockhart, will you allow us to knock you out before it starts?”

“What do you think I am, a fool, I’ve been practicing my meditation as much as they have.”

“Goddess give me strength. Well I’ve offered, if you want to take me up on it you’ve got until it starts.”

As the minutes ticked on and the students started to chat amongst themselves, Lockhart tried to both meditate and talk, and started to come to the conclusion that maybe they’d been doing it differently to him. The slight whirring sound of Filch’s whacker spinning through the air started up behind him. Then he felt it start, and he wanted to back out.

“Actually, I would like to be knocked out now.”

By the time he finished the word Actually he saw the world flicker and it flickered again. The third time took long enough that he could see a red spell coming for him, but he was gone again.

Panicking he pulled his wand and tried to stun himself, but his magic wouldn’t respond, as it was growing too fast. He felt like he was going to burst, but somehow he didn’t for the next three worlds. After that he felt his eardrums go, and liquid start to pour out of them as his eyes bulged out of his head. His wand dropped somewhere in a forest as his hands swelled up like sausages. He wanted to pass out, but the mercy of oblivion was not to be. The last thing he saw before he went blind was streams of magic in the air, and he was unaware of what happened, as his body disintegrated from the magical pressure forcing the bonds that held his body together to fail.

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Back at Hogwarts everyone turned towards Lockhart when he said “Actually I”. By the time they looked over, all they could see is Filch swinging through empty air. A couple of the NEWT students that realised what that meant started to panic.

“Enough!” Minerva’s whipcrack sharp word cut through the growing panic before it could take hold.

“You are all trained, you’re all still here and you’ve done this bit before. That is why we needed your waivers. The training that you’ve done was so that we don’t need to use those waivers. Everyone take a couple of minutes to meditate and let your panic go and we’ll begin. If you lose control just concentrate on your original exercises and we will catch you. Mr Filch, thank you for trying, it’s all any of us could ask of you. If you would leave me your whacker, there’s a bottle of fire whiskey in the main hall with your name on it.”

Minerva gave them all a couple of minutes, then cleared her throat.

“Nicole, would you go first, and tell one of the others to come back to prove that you’ve done it?”

Nicole nods excitedly and then she’s gone, for her it was almost too easy after nearly a year of practice, and then the games her mummy played with her. When she arrived she found herself engulfed in a group hug, and it took her a moment to be able to speak.

“Professor McGonagall wants one of you to go back to prove I got here ok.”

“I’ll go” volunteers Neville before disappearing.

Once Neville appears Minerva can see the nervousness vanish amongst the rest of the class, and they all successfully pass the test and become members of the Hogwarts house, none of them as fast or smoothly as Nicole, but that’s ok that can be trained. Taking herself to the Library, she summons some food and butterbeers from where she stored them earlier.

“Congratulations on becoming part of Hogwarts house, you are all now Novice Warlocks.”

Hogwarts appears next to her and does her formal introduction.

“Welcome to my house, as everyone is here at the same time I want you all to know that I am going to all the first magi trials on the summer solstice. Minerva, Harry and Hermione are all ready to take the trials. Daphne, Lavender, Parvati, you’re not quite there yet, and these tests are optional. But if you want to try them let me know in the morning or later that day, and I’ll give you some extra exercises that should have you ready by the time of the test. Be warned that this is the last test that you can pass with a safety net. You’ve heard some of my list of accomplishments, if you go the route of the magi then you will face great danger, and will be called on to defend your world from threats that nobody else can. 

“Even if you stay as warlocks, by the time you’re qualified you’ll be capable of taking on a dragon single-handedly with the expectation of winning. You will no longer rely on your wands, in fact as of tomorrow you need to leave your wands in your rooms. You will be able to explore the three worlds that you’ve been moving between during your training. There used to be multi-layer cities where people built in all three worlds and warlocks acted as the go-betweens and traders. There’s new plant and animal life with magical qualities to be found, and many of the old tombs and crypts could only be fully explored by warlocks or magi. If you are ever able to visit the pyramids of Egypt, you can see the ritual rooms where they anchored the souls of their Pharaohs to Earth so that they didn’t have to learn to walk the dream the slow way and could concentrate on learning to fight. In china they have underground prisons where the only way in and out is through the dream. Enemy mages were kept in iron manacles so that they couldn’t escape themselves. Atlantis should still be out there somewhere too, it was an island nation populated by Warlocks. In Greece the temples to the Gods had lavish sleeping chambers in the dream, as well as armouries. You could also choose to be healers, or potion masters, able to gather your own exotic materials. So never think that being a Magi is the only path you can take.”


	27. Chaper 26

Petunia and Karen watched as Ceeley pushed her food around on her plate listlessly, her whole posture showing that she was forcing herself to stay awake long past her bodies tolerance, and magic was no longer taking up the slack.

“Ceeley, you need to get some sleep.” One of them said, though they were both thinking it.

“Can’t, too much to do, and need to protect you.”

Petunia got up and went around the table to kneel beside Ceeley’s chair, “Ceeley, you’re family too. That means that your health matters to us.”

“I’m not as important as you.”

Petunia pulls her into a hug, “That’s not what family means. You are part of our family, that means that you’re as important as everyone else in the family. You are as valuable as everyone else in the family, and you matter as much as everyone else in the family.”

She takes a small bit of the food off the plate, “Now eat.”

Reluctantly Ceeley eats, “You know I’m older than you.”

“It’s not the age, it’s the milage young lady.” Petunia rejoinders before kissing her on the head.

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Azaria looked up as one of her clan mates that had sworn to the Oberon and Titania of the winter court entered the room. She would never swear to their enslavers, even if she’d said the words to get rid of the manacles.

The scout walked up to the leader of the expedition, “Thighearna!”

“Report!”

“The Urisk fell asleep before the curtain closed.”

“Good, it’s about time. Azaria, you know the house better than anyone else, you’ll take point. Your job will be to put anyone that’s awake to sleep and make sure that their iron is clear for our exit. Everyone else, we are only there for the Urisk and it’s bonded. Their iron is too pure to take any risks so make sure that at least two of you are on each of them, and get them out and back here as fast as you can. If I see you leave before everyone else is out you’ll die and so will your family.”

As they were leaving the scout grabbed her arm, “Why don’t you just swear to them, and make it easier on all of us?”

“I will never swear to my enslavers, and you are dead to me, your name stricken from our clan for doing so.”

“Sister, please.”

“I have no brother, now go back to _a ‘reamhrachadh asail_.” She hissed at him.

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Azaria waited, feeling the curtain between her and her destination moving. The motions easier where the realms moved in sync than it was at home when her father taught her. She was acutely aware of the naked steel held by the neach-brathaidh behind her. She held up her hand as she felt the curtain open up, and her senses could feel the other side. The Thighearna turned an hour glass and now she had to wait. She was just glad that her Father had named her heir before the court came and he was slain. Otherwise they’d all be beholden to the court and have to join in on the sick revelries. She was glad that they’d only found one magical child, as they would at least have time to acclimatise before they were forced to be the entertainment. She tried not to throw up as the memory of watching a woman they’d captured from one of the cities in this world or the previous one had her iron manacles removed, leaving her with only enough iron that she wouldn’t fall into the sea. They laughed as with nothing holding it back her magic absorbed more and more magic while she desperately tried to get the manacles back. When they did finally let her get them, they’d put them in a box with a simple lid, but her body was too swollen with magic to open it. She wasn’t sure how the woman died, but she did. At least the non-magicals don’t have a magical body that co-exists with their physical body, so they just form one. She tried to ignore the fact that some of those people they’d kidnapped would be kept in a camp in the desert so that their magic body formed with just enough magic to be entertaining.

“Go!” The shout brought her out of morbid thoughts and she slipped into the house, the neach-brathaidh behind her.

Slipping silently up the stairs she ‘clumsily’ kicked one of the stairs.

“Be more careful” he hissed at her.

“I’m sorry if the thought of naked steel behind me makes me lose focus, you could always put the sword away.”

“Not tonight sister, I’m not giving you any chances to allow someone to get away tonight. And I know you better than that ‘she fought me off’, really? Now move, we have a time limit.”

Reluctantly she made it the rest of the way up the stairs. Carefully moving the small saucepan from the bedroom into the hall to give the others space to step out with only a little effort. She then slipped open the door to the expanded space. She saw one of the other pans, and carefully levitated it to her grasp in the other room. She watched as the rest of the group stepped in and then collapsed to the floor as she was hit from behind, the burning feeling on her ear telling her that it was with an iron pan. The skillet she was holding falling to the floor with a clatter. She felt herself being dragged back against the wall and then turned over. The face of the neach-brathaidh above her as he carefully placed the small saucepan on her chest.

“I’m so sorry that you were unable to make it out in time, when magical leadership transfers we’ll mourn your death, and I’m sure I can persuade the next leader to swear to the winter court.” With that he snaps the handle off the saucepan and hurries out the door as a scream of anguish comes from the bedroom and a the mate of the woman they just kidnapped comes running in carrying the last pan.

Azaria stares up at the mate of the woman they’d just kidnapped, the iron saucepan resting lightly on her chest a far surer prison than even the horseshoes they used at home as she daren’t raise her magic even one iota in case the reaction killed her. She wondered if this was the night she died. Then she felt it, the moment that any hope of escapes passed as the curtain closed. That was also when the woman standing above her felt it too, as the suffocating feeling of her magic swept out like a tsunami. A series of pops from a downstairs registered distantly, of more immediate concern was the fact that the world was warping under the pressure she was exerting. Then she saw it, the insignia of a great one blazing on her forehead augmenting her already terrifying power. 

She couldn’t help it, she started laughing. It was going to get her killed, but at least she’d die knowing that the court had kidnapped the mate of a Chosen Titania, and if her clan wasn’t avenged then at least they would die with honour. She’d never even heard of a Titania that had been chosen before, corrupted but never chosen.

Karen stared down at the elf as she seemed to go insane and started laughing even though she was in obvious agony. Lifting up the saucepan she didn’t even notice the damage that she was doing to the house. The wards absorbing as much magic as they could and glowing so brightly that it was waking up people all over the town. Power and electronics went out for miles around from the magic that wasn’t absorbed.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t just brain you now?” Karen shouts at her.

“Kill me now if it pleases you Titania, I can offer no justification for my life that is worth your mate. I just ask that when you rescue your mate you spare my clan.” She responds with calm acceptance, knowing that her death is near.

“Explain!” Karen’s magic picks her up like a rag doll and throws her against a wall, the iron pan falling to one side as if it didn’t matter.

Struggling to breath as Karen’s magic is pressing down on her chest, Azaria manages to gasp out, “My clan are held as surety of my behaviour, my life is forfeit to you, and I live at your pleasure.”

Azaria feels her self-starting to black out, untrained this Titania may be, but her strength cannot be denied.

Karen watches as the Sidhe’s eyes start to flutter while her brain tried to process the words she heard. Lowering the pan as the simple acceptance of their own death broke through Karen’s fear and anger enough that she is able to think. Azaria falls to the floor gasping for breath as Karen’s magic recedes slightly.

“Why would you accept your death so easily?” Grief starting to tinge her voice.

“We have wronged you Titania, it does not matter why I was here, I was part of it. Thus, I live at your mercy.”

“Can you help me get her back?”

“If that is what my Titania wishes, it shall be so.” Azaria felt the bond of service form with this Titania.

“How do we get her back?” Karen snaps, her anger turning cold.

With the tone of voice someone might use when faced with a Rhino that’s trying to decide if you’re in it’s way or not, Azaria ventures an explanation, “We need to wait for the curtain to open again, and then locate their trail. If we’re lucky they’ve kept her near the desert, but it’s more likely that she and your Urisk will be taken back to the court, and the camp moved. Then it’s likely that a prize like her would be kept near the Oberon and Titania until they tire of her. If that’s the case then you’ll need to fight them or steal her away. You’ll need to know how to block their magic so that they can’t overwhelm you, even as powerful as you are. But we can’t attack them until we’re sure the curtain is parted enough that we can escape to the desert at least, otherwise they’ll just call in another Oberon or Titania and chase us down.”

Karen tried to think, to process what was being said, but it was magic stuff, and they’d not had much time to spend learning about that while they were learning about folklore. She knew that the Summer and winter courts ruled over the British isles, and that the Slaugh occasionally swept in from Scandanavia. But she knew next to nothing about how to fight or sneak up on them. It wasn’t as if she’d gone to school to learn magic.

Having a Eureka moment, Karen speaks sharply, “I don’t know enough to understand, but I know who does. Get up.”

Scrambling to her feet, Azaria is too numb because of her continued survival to be surprised when the world buckles around her Titania as she takes her hand and just steps somewhere else.

Karen steps to outside the three broomsticks where she waited for Petunia when Harry had their scar removed, her magic following her will like never before and responding to her unconscious desires. Seeing the castle in the distance she stepped to the wall, and then past the wall to find the entrance. Her magic still swirling around her, blanketing the area and warping the world making any magic from people without sufficient power and control impossible. As she marches towards the entrance, a sour faced man with greasy hair and a black cloak that she doesn’t recognise comes running out of the door and waves his stick at her, a moment later he collapses as she storms past, only intent on finding someone that she recognises, so they can take her to Harry or Dudley. An old man with a long white beard appears with a crack in front of her, and starts to shout at her to stand down or something. She continues into the school calling “Harry! Harry! Where are you?” Grief, anger, and an edge of panic apparent in her voice.

Someone she recognises appears standing next to a wall and braces themselves.

Storming over she barks, “Where’s Harry?”

“She’s in The Library, I was sent to get you. Y… You’ll need to touch this crest and control your magic like you would the dream, and raise it two steps.” The young woman manages to speak clearly despite the pressure pushing down around her.

Karen’s brain tries to process what she’s been told to do and she watches as the young woman places their hand on a crest then disappears slowly before coming back quickly, and repeating her instructions.

Slowly Karen’s brain worked out that they wanted her to delve the dream, even though it wasn’t the dream. Like a light switch her magic disappeared from the air and everyone near-by could breathe again. she put her hand on the crest, a few seconds later she’d disappeared too. Carefully reaching out with her magic, Azaria followed, and sighed in relief as she found herself on the edge of the desert the curtain to the next world still parted. If they could move one more world she wouldn’t be in danger of dying if she lost control of herself.

When Karen appeared in the new realm, she felt that the dream was still active here, so her magic stayed suppressed. Looking around she saw Harry standing in front of her and pulled them into a hug and broke down, babbling about what happened. She wasn’t even aware when someone appeared behind her and knocked her out.

Azaria appeared and then gasped as the Bloody Rose from legend appeared in front of her and knocked out her Titania as if it was nothing. Prostrating herself on the floor at her feet she awaited judgment.

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They were still celebrating the fact that they had new members in the house when Hogwarts appeared.

“Everyone, Quiet” she shouted.

Once the cheer and laughter died down, she continued at a more normal volume, “An emergency has just come up, an Archmagis with their magic flowing out of control has just turned up. Snape and Albus have already tried to stop her, but they just don’t have the power they’d need to overcome her magic. We need to get her out of the nest before she accidentally kills someone.

“She keeps calling for Harry, and occasionally Dudley, does anyone know from that who she might be?”

“I don’t think it would be Mum, as she knows Professor McGonagall well, do you think it could be Karen?”

“Well, I know it wouldn’t be my parents, as they don’t even know where the school is.”, Hermione says primly to cover her worry.

“Let’s assume it is Karen, who knows her well enough that she won’t just flatten you, but isn’t Harry, Dudley, or someone else that knows well enough to just latch onto?”

Everyone looks around while they think, eventually Daphne speaks up. “I spent Christmas with them, does that help?”

“That’s good enough, follow me I’ll get you ahead of her and then you need to go to her. Do not let go of your magic, otherwise you won’t be able to get control back. As long as you keep control you’ll be able to come back here with the crests. Remember that we need her here rather than in the Nest.”

Jogging to keep up Daphne listens to what Hogwarts is asking her to do, and sighs at her sudden bout of Gryffindorishness. Touching the crest she is unprepared for just how oppressive the magic coming off of Karen feels, barely managing to keep control of her magic, she stammers out instructions for getting to the Library before demonstrating. Merlin it’s like trying to do this for the first time again. Taking a breath and a tighter rein on her magic, she returns and repeats the instructions and waits. She almost thinks that she’ll need to demonstrate again when suddenly the pressure’s gone and then Karen disappears. She then notices that there’s someone that looks similar to Harry’s base form standing there before they too disappear. When she gets back to the Library she can see that Karen is unconscious and the person with her is kneeling on the floor for some reason.

Hogwarts looks down at the prostrate Sidhe, “Speak, why are you here?”

“Bloody Rose, I beg of you to spare my Titania’s life, she’s only like this because the winter court abducted her mate.”

“You would call a human Titania?”

Seeing Harry start to break down, Hermione discretely moved over and started to hug her, Daphne, Lavender and Parvati following to provide reassuring touches.

“I would, especially one that’s also chosen.”

“What about your previous Titania and Oberon?”

“I didn’t have one, we were free Sidhe until the Winter court decided they needed more bodies.” She pulls up her sleeve to show the iron burns.

“I didn’t think there were any free Sidhe.”

“There weren’t until you wiped out the court of the red rose. We were then able to form clans and live free, too much trouble to take over while slaves from the desert were easy to find. Then they dried up and the courts started to look for new slaves, and so we became tràill.”

Dudley finished putting together what the Sidhe meant when she said that they had abducted Karens mate, and his fear came out as anger, “What do you mean they abducted my Mum?”

“She is your mother? I am so sorry child. I have no excuse for my part in what happened. But, before you pass judgement on me, know that my family, my clan was held hostage against my cooperation and good behaviour.”

She then outlines everything that happened since last year, starting with finding the traces of someone taking one of the house-elves from the reserve after she killed the spinewolf that was hunting it.

It was with a growing sense of horror that Ginny realised that it was her fault that this all started. When she finished speaking she lunged at Dudley and cried, “I’m sorry, it’s all my fault, if I hadn’t rescued Aityo none of this would have happened.”

Clumsily Dudley hugged her, and patted her back, his childish anger warring with a crying Ginny.

Azaria heard this and spoke up, “Nay child, what my people did isn’t your fault. You saved a life at great risk to your own, and with a large dose of luck survived that rescue. I bear some responsibility for reporting your signatures, but if it wasn’t me then it would have been another scout, as I was not trusted. I then bare more responsibility because I placed my own peoples safety above that of your own people, even though I left what information I could. The people that bare the blame though are the Winter court, as it is their nature and desires that led them to order me to follow it up, and the threat to my clan that kept me on task.”

“While I would like to be available to answer further questions, Bloody Rose I must beg your indulgence. May I move onto the next realm before the curtain closes so that I can rest. I am unsure that I can survive the entire time before the curtain opens again.”

“Why canna you sleep here?” McGonagall demands to know.

Azaria looks at the Bloody Rose questioningly, and when she nods the explains.

“I am not human, just as the Urisk are not human. In our world the magic is denser, much denser and most of you would die if you went there now. But we are creatures of magic one step below the Aictuilaxr on the young ladies shoulders. As we still have bodies we produce our own magic, but our bodies are also held together with our magic. Out here in the desert, magic is so thin that if we don’t maintain control, our magic will expand and take our bodies with it. As we can’t survive without our bodies unless we survive the Trial of the sea of magic, this is supposed to be a very painful way to die.”

Hogwarts asks, “Do you practice guest rights?”

“Food and shelter in exchange for protecting the household?”

“Yes.”

“Then I invite you to the Sanctuary to share bread and salt.”

“We used wine and sweet meats.”

“We can share those too. Oh, and can one of you take that saucepan to the nest please, it’s quite uncomfortable having it here.”


	28. Chaper 27

Albus looked around his home, ex home for the last time. He’d packed everything that he wanted to take, and there was still a surprising amount left over. He looked up at his sleeping portrait that would only activate on his death, and wondered idlily if it would be the him before or after he removed the shard from Harry’s scar. Perhaps it was for the best that he left now, he’d noticed his eye’s starting to go yellow, and he didn’t want to hurt the students as a whole. The thing he’d been stuck on since the chamber, is was that because they mattered to him, or because he couldn’t cover it up. He’d been going so long with a rigid ethical code because right and wrong, like and dislike stopped making sense a long time ago, that having emotions was throwing him off balance. Did he care, or did he just think he should care?

Anyway, that’s enough wool gathering, especially as there appears to be another one of them, this one taking the form of a human woman that he wouldn’t have looked twice at in Diagon Alley. That she was obsessed with Harry just left him feeling relieved, and he didn’t know what to do with that. So he was going to do the sensible and logical thing, and move back into his home in Godric’s Hollow. From there he could now use the DoM archives for a few weeks without needing to worry about returning to Hogwarts, as he was already suspended. He also didn’t need to worry about money as he was still going to be paid till his suspension expired, and he had lived very frugally himself so he had a nest egg. 

Shrinking his trunk he took the scenic route to the gates of Hogwarts, his path lit by bobbing lights. Every so often he’d stop and smile wistfully as he came across a place that brought memories to the surface, and he looked at the memory with new eyes. He stopped at the entrance as he remembered sending a Tom Riddle home to the orphanage that first year. A tear traced it’s way down his cheek to get lost in his beard as he wondered if things would have turned out differently if he’d found a magical family willing to foster him. Instead, he’d made the decision that followed the rules exactly with no room for emotion.

With that thought he trudged down to the gates and Apparated home. Opening his door with a twitch of his wand, he put his trunk down inside and made his way to his bedroom. Picking up a couple of books from the bed he remembered removing them from Hogwarts after Tom killed Myrtle, as it was clear that Dippet wasn’t going to do anything about it. He’d completely forgotten he’d done this. Maybe it was what he was looking for before. He sat on the edge of the bed, thoughts of sleep forgotten as he opened the first book, titled Secrets of the Darkest Arts.

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On privet drive a set of wards sought to change the ward stone to stop it from exploding and destroying the wards while also absorbing all of the excess magic that had been released. Slowly it changed from a piece of rough granite to something more refined, more pure and less of this world. As the impurities were forced out of the stone carbon was drawn from everything around, leaving an expanding circle in the grass that looked like someone had taken a torch to it.

Finally, the wards started to dim as did the stone, and a faint image of a woman wearing a nightgown appeared kneeling over the stone, her hands cupping the stone as if trying to prevent it from disintegrating by shear force of will. With the wards no longer in danger of exploding she worked on drawing the magic out of the house where it was still warping the world inside, leaving an environment that would give Esher a headache trying to understand it. She was glad that she no longer slept, as this was going to take a while, she could worry about her sister when she was no longer in danger of dying herself.

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Penny heard Madam Pomfrey walk over to Colin, she’d gotten good at working where people where by their echoes. She listened carefully as the sounds of her daily business and the radio were the only reason she hadn’t gone insane, and the occasional glimpse at a world that wasn’t greyed out when a shadow passed over her, an insect flew passed her vision, or Madam Pomfrey looked in her eyes.

“Right, I’m sorry about this, but we need to do this for all long term petrification victims to avoid mental instability due to isolation. Poor dear you only had one eye open, so I doubt you even had much to look at. Right, 12th of November, add a bit to get the traumatic event and I need to use that much. Brace yourself, the confusion will wear off by the time we give you the potion. Obliviate Totalis.”

Madam Pomfrey’s voice attracted her attention again, and she started to panic. She wasn’t insane, and how would the spell affect her oath?

Madam Pomfrey moved around the ward, doing Draco next, then the first years. Finally Pomfrey came to her, mentally she braced herself, and then the spell came and her mind started to go fuzzy. The oath started to rise up inside her and she grabbed it and metaphorically shoved it in front of the spell. Erase that you pile of dragon dung, I dare you. By the time the spell started to subside she could hear Professor Sprout and Snape talking with Madam Pomfrey. So far as she could tell she could still remember everything. She danced a little jig in happiness and listened to the conversation as they moved around and administered the doses to the first years, and then her. They needed to wait a little longer for Colin and Draco as more power had been needed for the spell to erase their memories. She also found out from the conversation that the variation that Madam Pomfrey used was different to the normal one as it didn’t mask the memories, it actually removed them root and branch from the brain. Hearing the first years coming around she tried to mimic their confusion as she felt feeling return to her and she blinked for the first time in a few months.

Madam Pomfrey looked at her a little strangely, but didn’t say anything.

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Karen woke up in a soft, unfamiliar, empty bed. Once the lack of another body registered with her she came to full wakefulness and started to panic.

A soothing woman’s voice helped to calm her down, “Shh, your safe and at Hogwarts. What do you remember from last night?”

“I woke when a pan fell on the floor. It took me a moment to realise what was happening and grab the Saucepan I had near the bed. Someone tried to grab me and I hit them with the pan, they screamed and staggard back and I tried to follow them, but I couldn’t without losing control. So I came out and found someone lying on the floor with the other saucepan on their chest and I was so angry, I don’t remember much more.”

Hogwarts laughs, “Well girl, you do angry very well, you just scared the pants off of the Sidhe you found, to the point where she accepted that she was going to die. You also terrified both Snape and Dumbledore, the latter so much that he’s left. I can’t wait to see what you’re like with a bit of training under you belt.”

“Oh, shit. I didn’t hurt anyone did I?”

“Only their pride, and you might want to apologise to Daphne too, as she’s the one that told you how to get here, and she was very shaken by the experience.”

“Oh thank god.”

“That brings us neatly onto the next question, which one marked you, and when?”

“Erm, she didn’t say her name.”

“Of course she didn’t, but she must have told you something, as those are the rules they agreed to.”

“I think she said that she had others before the hunter stole her crown, and it’s a good thing I’m a woman.”

“Was there any reason why it was good you were a woman?”

“I think it was something about cycles.”

“Oh, who could that be. Could be her, could be her. Might be her, ooohhh, that could narrow it down. Would you be able to push some magic into your forehead for me?”

“Erm, why?”

“It’s how to make whatever mark she gave you become visible without needing to release all of your magic into the air. Though I highly recommend the latter when you’re trying to make an impression, it makes your hair go all wild and your eyes glow.”

“I’ll try, we’ve been mainly focusing on keeping our magic at a low enough level that we could continue to live in the non-magical world, and also doing things with our magic deliberately so that it doesn’t decide to do it for itself.”

“I’m impressed, that’s very good for someone that’s self-trained. When did you gain your magic?”

“Christmas, Petunia took me out to get it.”

“Interesting, last night you felt like an archmagis and now you feel like a squib, almost non-magical. Which isn’t helping your efforts to move your magic around, you actually need to have an appreciable amount released to do that.”

“This is what we need to do in order to have a functioning TV in the house. And now Ceeley has her computer it’s even more important.”

“I can’t even pretend to understand what they are, but I’m just surprised you’re even awake enough to have this conversation.”

“It’s not that bad, it’s really hard to stay awake during the dream as we lower it further so that we don’t accidently delve, that actually happened once or twice, it was most embarrassing having to get the knight bus in my nighty the first time I didn’t notice till I’d taken a few steps, I had to promise to give them the money when I got home. I got my teleportation licence as quickly as I could after that.”

“Wait, you lower your magic even further than this?”

“I did just say that.”

“Could you demonstrate briefly?”

“Er, sure, but don’t blame me if I pass out.” Karen drops her magic to the level they use during the dream so that they know they’re not going to accidentally delve.

Hogwarts collapses on the bed laughing, “Yo. You. You can. Stop. Now.”

Karen crosses her arms in a huff, “What’s so funny?”

“You, they, invisible, kidnapped, archmagis, idea.”

Karen pokes her, and Hogwarts jerks, “Hey, what’s the big idea, and how did you do that?”

“It is not funny; Petunia has been kidnapped. And I just poked you.”

“Ow, that actually hurt. And actually, it is, just not the kidnapping part. I want to be there when you tell Azaria that Petunia was the one that took you to the shore of the sea to get your magic. Anyway, back to the you poking me bit, how did you do that?”

“My lover has been taken, and you’re worried about how I’m poking you?”

“Well, yes. The only people here that are strong enough to rescue her are yourself, Harry, Hermione, and me. The only person that is skilled enough to do it is me, and I’m literally tied to the school and can’t leave. Even if we had enough magi available to bring the wards up to a wartime footing, it would only allow me to manifest a physical body in The Nest.”

“Erm, not trying to sound ignorant here, as I completely am, but I kind of followed what you said, but I’ve got no idea what you meant about manifesting a physical body, or the nest.”

“OK, long story short, when the school was founded I willingly sacrificed my life in order to power the wards protecting the school, as I was bored of life and would have gone to explore the sea if I hadn’t met the other founders. Hey presto, I discover that I was actually more magical than I was physical, and so I ended up in the wards rather than dying. My ward stone is in the Sanctuary, which is the next layer of the school, you’re in the Library, the Armoury is the next one closer to earth, and the Nest is the main school where children come to be taught and protected. 

“So, within the wards where my new body is I can create a physical body, as the ambient magic and my own magic are high enough for me to maintain it. But, the magic at the other three levels isn’t high enough for that, so I can project here, I can only make myself heard in The Armoury, and I have very little power in The Nest, the best I can do is give people a feeling of approval or disapproval. In large part because the density of magic is so low. That means that if you threw a pillow at me it would... Hey do you know how disconcerting that is.” Hogwarts finishes talking with a squawk as Karen tosses a pillow into her to land where she’s sitting.

Standing up, she sits down again, on the pillow this time. Only to have it yanked out from underneath her as Karen leans down sideways.

“Do you realise that you’re not actually sitting on anything, I can wave my hand under here.”

Karen does so and Hogwarts jumps up with a yelp as she accidentally brushes her derriere.

“OI! Cut that out, just because you can touch me when I should be insubstantial doesn’t mean you can take liberties.”

“Sorry, but you wanted to take my mind off Petunia, so quit complaining, I’ve never seen a ghost before. And don’t think I’ve forgotten, I’m just…”

“I know, I really do. I’ve lost more than my share of friends and lovers over the years. At least I’ve never been in the situation where I’ve had to watch the person I love grow old and die while knowing that were things different I could grant them a life to match mine. This was when the gods still walked the earth in their mortal shells, and we were under siege. We hadn’t discovered how to smelt iron yet, so we had not defence against the Fae apart from magical force. We had enough people and power to keep Them from knocking our civilisations down, but not enough to drive them off. They loved each other, and so he agreed to be placed in an enchanted sleep, and only awaken once month so that they could spend time together. He lasted 120 years before the loneliness and isolation got to him, as everyone he knew had died long ago, and the rest of us were immortal and 1 day a month isn’t really enough time to get to know someone with a war going on, and he didn’t even get to know his children, as he had less than a year with each of them before they were adults and doing their own thing. So he asked not to be put back to sleep and lived to an age of 80 lived years. I think that what destroyed her in the end is that we were able to break the siege 2 years after she buried him.

“She was the first to give up her mortal shell when we discovered a way to keep Them out unless summoned. She’d already lost her followers by that point, and was still grieving. People didn’t really want to worship grieving gods. Most of the older gods died in that working as they were the only ones with the power to make a difference.”

Karen steps up to her and gives her a hug, that felt like hugging a teddy bear that could hug back.

Seeing how much pain Hogwarts was holding, she grabbed onto it like a someone on a diet grabs a bag of carrot sticks instead of their favourite snack.

“You must have seen a lot of things in your life that have left their scars. When I was doing my psychology degree, I counselled veterans before I specialised into child psychology. So if you want, I’ll be willing to listen.”

“Thanks, but I got over it years ago.”

“Your tears say otherwise. I think you did the same thing that so many soldiers do, and pushed it down to deal with later because survival was more important than feelings. But you don’t have to do anything, it’s an offer that’s there if you want it. Who knows, maybe we’ve learnt some new things in the non-magical world that you’ve never tried before.”

“I grew up in a different time with different expectations, I’m fine.”

Karen leaned back so that she could look Hogwarts in the eyes, “You’re human. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived, or what you’ve done, you can’t change the fact that you were born human, and you still have a human mind and human emotions. I’m sure you’ve got many good memories in there, but for each one there’s also going to be sorrow that you try to avoid, and deflect whenever things get too close to something truly painful. You said that you were bored of life. But you weren’t really were you. You’d just seen so much pain and so many friends die that there didn’t seem to be any enjoyment left in life. I bet that when you said that you’d help them it was more because it would pass time than because it was interesting to you. Then you were surprised when you laughed for the first time, and your thoughts of seeing what’s in the sea started being pushed back further and further. This next bit is a pure guess, but since you lost your body, you’ve not felt the crushing emptiness that you felt before you met the founders. Yes there has been boredom, laughter, sadness, and despair, but it doesn’t feel soul deep anymore. How have I done so far.”

Hogwarts had tried to discorporate while the devil was looking in her eyes and stabbing every sore spot she could see with a needle and saying does that hurt? Whatever was allowing Karen to touch her also stopped her from not being there, so she weathered the tearing down of what she’d been feeling and felt naked and powerless in front of this person that felt like they had less magic than the youngest child in the school.

“So what? Why does it matter?”

“It matters because you’re human, it matters because I’m human. We didn’t evolve for immortality. Hell, we didn’t evolve for war either, but there’s enough of that around. What we did evolve for is survival, and sometimes our brains do things that were great on the savannah before we developed tools, life was hard, and death around every corner. While it’s quite clear that there’s more to the world than we thought and that gods do actually exist, the way that we react hasn’t changed, just the soft stuff, such as what we consider risky behaviour.

“When Petunia gained her own magic, she was told by everyone that she wasn’t allowed to learn magic here. That she wasn’t allowed to use a wand. So we tried to learn on our own. Hermione’s parents don’t actually care about magic and they’ve gone back to their dental practice. I can’t blame them for that, for not dreaming, but Petunia and I did, but there was. I don’t know where my thoughts are going anymore, she’s gone and there’s nothing I can do to help. Anything I try to do right now is only going to put me in danger as well as her, and I know it.”

Karen leans back again, tears damping her cheeks, “Why were you laughing earlier when I lowered my magic?”

The question catching her off guard, Hogwarts take a moment to answer, “Oh, that, erm. That was it, you felt like a non-magical, a particularly non-magical non-magical at that. So knowing on of their favourite sports, I was laughing at the fact that by the time we get to her she’ll have been there for hundreds of years.”

“Hundreds of years? I’m not waiting hundreds of years to get her.” Karen goes to storm off, but Hogwarts grabs her arm.

“Wait, it will only be hundred of years for her, she’s probably already been there 10 years. Time works differently out there. Most worlds have a similar light cycle, but that’s because of their moons or another light body or even just pure magic. But they move faster than the first three worlds. The sanctuary has 48 hours to a day here, and The Dream is open for half of it. I don’t know why, I was never a Scholar or researcher, more focused on the practical aspects of magic. But I learnt enough to know that knowing more is always better, I just prefer to learn from people that have already done the research. Fortunately life seems to be on our side as the Sidhe seem to only accomplish as much as we do in their lives even though they live so much longer.

“But, if she’s as adept as you at keeping her magic supressed, she’s going to appear to be non-magical for long after the time that she should have started developing a magical body. So I pictured the Oberon looking at her in her iron manacles and trying to work out why she’s not developed her magic while he’s actually looking at someone that’s actually his magical equal.”

Hogwarts managed to strike a pose that looked suitably confused and silly that Karen giggled despite herself.

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

Petunia woke up on a pile of straw, the feel of something cold and heavy on her wrists, iron manacles by the feel of them as she raised her magic slightly. Quickly lowering it to avoid the discomfort of the iron she took stock of her situation. She was sharing the cell with a sick looking female Sidhe that was wearing similar manacles. There was a heavy brass bound door with no obvious hinges on it a view slide in the centre at eye level.

“You might as well sit down, they’re not going to be back until morning.” The voice that came from the girl sounded young.

It was then that Petunia realised that the light was coming from a ball floating above the other woman’s hand.

Sitting down in front of her, she lit a light on one of her fingers. “I can hold this if it would help. My name’s Petunia, may I ask yours?”

“I’m Lyasa of Clan Yewglisten. Soon to be dead or clan chief”

“Why?”

“Iron poisoning, I’ve been here a year already as my, I think the word is traitor in your tongue, of a brother informed me that our clan head didn’t make it out after the last raid she was forced into.”

“I’ve never heard of Iron poisoning.”

“Iron disrupts magic because it’s so stable, meaning that our magic stops flowing properly. When that happens we need to get it flowing again otherwise it starts to decay as it can’t pass out into the world as we produce more.” She laughs bitterly

“I don’t actually know what’s worse, dying in the desert because we can’t reign our magic in that long and having our bodies disintegrate, or dying of iron poisoning because our magical bodies stop being able to produce magic, so our physical bodies die.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m 283, yeah, yeah I know I’m still only a kid, but magic doesn’t care about that.”

Absolutely flabbergasted, Petunia fell back, “But how? I’m in my 30’s and you look younger than me.”

“Hey it’s not my fault that time moves so slowly in the desert that you have to grow up faster as a result.”

Petunia sighs, she knows she probably shouldn’t but she can’t leave a child to suffer when she might be able to help, not after Harry.

“Listen, when we bonded with Ceeley and brought her into the family, we did a thing where we all shared magic and flowed it around each other. Would that help?”

“You want to marry me?”

“What?”

“Marriage, you know, when two people pass their magic through each other and become as one.”

“No, not at all, I’ve already being married once, and I might as well be married now our magic fits together so tightly. Adopt you maybe, but no not marry you.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that unless you mean it, magic has a way of turning throw away statements into promises.”

“Well don’t worry, it really wouldn’t bother me if I adopted you. You’d balance out Dudley, and then Harry can be the middle and balance out which ever side needs it.”

“You’re still not taking this seriously enough, but anything’s better than dying I suppose.”

Moving to sit in front of her she holds her hands out, “Take my hands, and I’ll pull with one and push with the other, try to follow along as you can.”

Slowly she started to raise her magic, trying to keep it below her skin so that it wouldn’t come in contact with the manacles and burn her. Pulling with one hand she slowly pushed magic into Lyasa forcing the magic out with her pulling action. Her magic felt stale and bitter, like old molasses, it moved like it too. Eventually, like a pipe that’s been gunged up for a long time, she felt some fresh magic come through and start carrying bits of the old magic with it. Once there was a free flow Petunia stopped even though she could tell she was still very blocked up. When she looked up, she saw the child looking a little better and also looking at her in awe.

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Use your magic without it feeling like you were? If you weren’t circulating it through me, I’d have never known.”

“It starts with meditation so that you can, well humans anyway, feel your magic and visualise it. I then combined a couple of tricks that Ceeley taught me for using magic without raising it. They do that so that they don’t do the magical equivalent of suffocating. And then I tried to keep it below my skin, as I don’t fancy getting iron burns, didn’t do so well, but I did well enough. But you look exhausted, so you should try and get some sleep, I’m sure they’ll wake us up when they need us.” She moves one of her manacles to show the burn.

“But.”

“Go to sleep, if nothing else, to let your magic rest. I’ll teach you to meditate in the morning, or whenever you wake up.”


	29. Chaper 28

Minerva looked out over the children as they filed in for breakfast. This year she’d needed to address them far more than the heads of the school were known to do, especially since Albus started. How could she phrase things so that people didn’t know what had actually happened to Albus but still knew they needed to keep an eye on him.

“Good morning everyone, may I have your attention please. You may have noticed that the headmaster’s chair has been removed. This is because he vacated the castle in the early hours of this morning. We believe that this was due to the tainted magic that he was infected with while he rescued Nicole.”

Snape muttered under his breath, “And it had absolutely nothing to do with the robe wettingly scary witch that stormed in at two this morning. Pull the other one.”

Minerva continued as if she couldn’t hear him, “Would you all please stand for a moment’s silence as Mr Lockhart departed this world last night due to lack of sufficient preparation. I would like to remind all students that have considered self-studying Meditation over the holidays that we hold classes and require waivers for progressing because this is dangerous in a way that our other classes are not when you start. The fact that there are so many more faces at the Hogwarts table should tell you that if you follow what we teach you, the risks are absolutely minuscule. Mr Lockhart.”

A minute later she continued, “Auror Pulbutt, please accept these Omniculars and check that they have not been tampered with. They record the test from last night an are evidence that we did everything within our power to save Mr Lockhart.

“Now on a brighter note, please welcome back our petrification victims. Miss Clearwater, while only Mr Malfoy and Mr Creevley will need to retake this year due to the duration they were petrified, Hogwarts will pay for you to retake any exams that you fail this year, you may resit them at the end of the summer.

“Finally on another sour note, I’d like to introduce Karen Stonehaven. She is Mr Dursley’s stepmother, and due to her magical marriage with Mrs Dursley, the current magical guardian of Mr Potter and Miss Granger as well. She will be staying with us until the end of the year at least as…”

There was a clatter from further down the table as Karen walked in from the antechamber. Looking over she saw Snape, pale-faced with his wand drawn backing away till his back hit the wall behind him.

“Mr Snape, if you would kindly pull yourself together and act like the professional you’re supposed to be, I would be very grateful. And put your wand away in the Great Hall.”

Licking his dry lips, he managed to get out something that sounded like a valid reason for no longer being here, “I, um, have a potion that I need to see to.”

Gathering up as much dignity as he could he strode from the room with his head held high.

“As I was saying, she will be staying for the rest of the year due to their house being attacked late last night, and her wife was abducted. If you see her around please be kind as her wife is missing, that also goes for Mr Dursley and.. Mr or Miss Potter depending on how they’re feeling.

“Finally, as the end of the year is coming up, all the second years need to be aware of the fact that Divination will no longer be available as an elective. Additionally, there may be a few new electives available at the beginning of next year. As such you will all have a two week grace period at the beginning of the year to evaluate the new electives and change them if you require. Additionally, for those that like to learn the limit of 3 electives is absolute and will not be bent for anyone, no matter how talented they think they are. If you wish to take additional OWLs or just want to change electives for 4th year you are permitted to self study. However, if it distracts you from your official classes then you will suffer consequences for it.

“Please continue breaking your fasts, and have a good day.”

Once Minerva sat down Karen walked over to the Hogwarts table in front of Daphne.

“Daphne, I would like to apologise for my behaviour last night, no matter how distraught I was it was still uncalled for.”

“It’s quite alright Karen, I spent Christmas with you in Alexandria, so I know you’d rather be reading books than knocking down castles.”

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

As professor McGonagall leaves Penny quickly gets up and follows after her. Once they’re out of sight of the great hall she reaches out and taps her on the shoulder.

“Professor McGonagall, I need you to train me...” and then she collapses feeling lightheaded.

Materialising next to her, Hogwarts looks down at the girl curiously, “Well that was interesting, I know what you’re going to need to learn next. Bring her into your office and lay her down until she comes around.”

“Yes Master.” Minerva sighs, it’s a good thing this was after breakfast, otherwise her inattentiveness could have killed a student.

Penny slowly comes round to find herself lying on a sofa, an unfamiliar voice saying something she didn’t understand.

“Lower, lower. No you still feel like a squib, you need to lower your magic further. If Karen and Petunia can do it with no training then you can do it, now just a little bit more.”

“Yes master.” Minerva said through gritted teeth.

“That’s it, almost there and… hold it.”

“How does that feel by the way?”

“Like I’ve squeezed myself into an elf-house and I’m holding myself there combined with being up for 36 hours and I need sleep.”

“Interesting. I now want you to expand a bubble.”

“You what?”

“I want you to expand a bubble.”

“With what magic?”

“Yours obviously.”

“Next you’re going to tell me that this is easy, and I should just get on and do it.”

“Well, no. Though I do keep it up all the time, I just have it at the level of a strong squib as until I met Karen I didn’t know it was even possible to go as you have, let alone what she functions with every day.”

“You’re telling me that she’s walking around like that and her magic is crammed down even more than this?”

“Yep, she feels like a particularly non-magical non-magical. Also, you need to hurry up as your guest is awake, and I think you’re about to get an apprentice.”

“What! Why didn’t you say something?”

“Bring that magic back down!”

“Yes master!”

As the jig was up, Penny opens her eyes and sits up to see Professor McGonagall sitting at an unfamiliar desk with her eyes closed while an unfamiliar ghost stands next to her. She could see sweat beading on the professors brow.

“Good, now extend your magic into a bubble at least 2 armlengths away from you.”

“Yes Master, if you only did it to the level of a squib, why am I going further?” She gritted out.

“Because until Karen turned up, I didn’t even know it was possible to get your magic that low and still function. As I said earlier, you’re setting up a very light field of magic that will be disturbed whenever something more magical passes through it. Which means students, spells, assassins, etc.”

“Is that sufficient master?”

The ghost turns to face her, “Penelope isn’t it? would you mind walking out of the room and back in a couple of times please?”

“Uh, sure.” Penny gets up and, with a glance to the sweating professor walks out and back in again.

“Minerva, did you feel that?”

“Urgh, what am I supposed to be feeling?”

“Penelope, could you do it as quietly as you can until I say stop? Even better, silence your steps and then do it.”

Deciding that she wouldn’t be able to see Professor McGonagall the same way again, she complied.

It was a few minutes later when Professor McGonagall ground out, “Miss Clearwater, did you just step in?”

“Yes professor.”

“Can you take one step backwards?”

“Like this?”

“Perfect, I think I’ve got it master.”

Hogwarts smiles, “Well done, we’ll be doing that until you can feel when Karen walks in. Now relax, I believe that you have a new apprentice to talk to. You may want to find out why she was so desperate to have you train her that she followed you out of breakfast while everyone else was starting to eat before you make it official though. I think you’ll be surprised and appalled at what you find out.”

Hogwarts then disappears.

Visibly relaxing McGonagall turned to Penny, “Why do you want me to train you?”

Taking a deep breath Penny started, “While I was laying in the infirmary, I thought back to the moment that I was petrified. First of all I blamed myself for not doing something, then I tried to blame Nicole, or Nick. That didn’t help, but all I had was time to think about what happened. Eventually I came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could have done to change the outcome for the better. If I’d run it’s likely that I’d have been eaten. If I pushed one of the children out the way they’d have died. If I moved from behind Nick I’d have died. If I threw a spell at Nicole and succeeded in knocking her out or killing her there would have been a bloody big snake with a killing gaze loose and uncontrolled. Finally, my transfiguration isn’t fast enough to have created a barrier that we could have used to escape before we were attacked. So I swore to do everything I could to get better, to do better, to be strong and skilled enough to protect the children next time.

“When we were unparalysed I had no clue how to go about doing this, but then I saw you and I remembered you display in January and how you said that you were a fully trained warlock. I want you to teach me, to allow me to become the best I can be. If time is an issue, I came of age while I was petrified, so I can drop my NEWTs. So please take me on.”

“How is it that you know all of this, as I was told that petrification victims are unaware of the passing of time?”

“Just before we were dosed with the mandrake solution, Madam Pomfrey told Colin that she needed to wipe our memories of the petrification. It seemed like it was standard procedure, as she said it was to prevent any isolation induced insanity. In fairness, if she hadn’t kept the radio on all the time, I may well have gone insane with only my own thoughts and the occasional conversation to listen to.”

Minerva stifled the need to scream, as if they’d known that they didn’t actually not remember, but the standard procedure for this meant that their memories were wiped, they could have let the DMCC or the DMLE know and see if they had any cures available before they came in.

It wasn’t as if Poppy had even lied, she told them that after successful treatment, they would wake without any memory of their petrification.

Taking a deep breath and forcing herself to sit back down as she found herself half raised from her chair she refocused on Miss Clearwater.

“Miss Clearwater, do you realise that by approaching me the way that you did you were asking for an apprenticeship as there’s a difference between teaching and training.”

“I didn’t but I stand by my words.”

“Tell me Miss Clearwater, what is you want out of your training?”

“I want to be the strongest witch… No, not witch, as you said you were a qualified warlock, and you’re still apprenticed to that ghost. I want to be the strongest magical I can be, to learn everything you can teach me to get there and more. To gain the experience I need in order to not freeze next time a situation comes up where those under my care are in danger.”

“You are aware of the fact that I am currently in an apprenticeship and that with your request, your apprenticeship cannot end until my own ends?”

“I am.”

“You are aware that I, a witch with 50 years of teaching and a Mastery in Transfiguration is finding this training hard. And that you will need to go through the same training?”

“I am.”

“I don’t think you are, but you will be. You understand that the only reason that I’m even considering this is that you have sworn a magical oath and I am still your Deputy Headmaster.”

“I… I… I hadn’t.”

“You and your safety are my responsibility while you are a student at this school. The oath that you swore will drive you to seek out paths to becoming the strongest you can be. Given that I know how oaths work, I know that if I don’t accept your apprenticeship I am aware that you will seek out other routes to that power, and like many dark wizards in the past, wouldn’t be able to tell the paths that lead to corruption of your soul and those that don’t. As the corrupting paths are generally easier to achieve, and give faster results, you’d end up filling your oath, but you’d be worse than the danger you were trying to protect your charges from. As you would have no limits on what to do in order to protect them. Do you understand?”

“I think so.”

“Against my better judgement, I Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Transfiguration Mistress, Warlock, and apprentice to Hogwarts accept you Penelope Clearwater as my apprentice until you my own apprentice is over and you have reached the same level of training as myself. So it is said, so let it be written, so let it be done.”

Penny, like most magically raised, recognised the words of acceptance, and bowed her head and tried to open her magic. What she didn’t recognise was the swirling maelstrom of magic that came from her master as they released their own magic in order to create the bond. When it hit it was like a flying headfirst into a bludger at full tilt, and rocked her back in her chair. 

“Until you are able to come here on your own, you will meet me in the great hall at 6am and I will bring you hear for an hour of meditation. Outside of that time you are to research the history of as many dark wizards as you can so that you can tell me how and why they fell. When you are able to come here on your own I want you to meet me in this office at the same time.”

“Yes master.”

“To make things easier in the future, there are four levels to the school. The sanctuary is where the ward stone is. This level is The Library, The Nest is the school that you’re familiar with. In between here and there is the Armoury. Follow me, and I’ll take you back to The Nest.”

“Yes master.”

“And less of the yes master, no master, three bags full master. You are my apprentice not a slave, as such I expect you to use your wit and intelligence. Unless I am actively training you or I refer to you as my apprentice, you may call me Minerva. I have a feeling that you’ll end up being a proxy apprentice to Hogwarts due to your higher availability.”

Hogwarts appears walking beside them, “Spoil the surprise why don’t you. Yes, as she is my apprentice, I am also your master. As the cat is out of the bag, your first instruction is to snap your wand and leave your past behind.”

Both Minerva and Penny stop and stare at Hogwarts.

“What? Are you the witch who couldn’t draw her own wand on an enemy or are you my apprentice through Minerva?”

Looking at Hogwarts steely gaze, Penny thought back to all of the thing’s she’d done with her wand, and then to the fact that Minerva had not used one during her demonstration, only during the lesson. Drawing her willow and unicorn hair wand she stared at it, it was the wand of a healer not a fighter, not a defender. Could she really break the companion that she’d had for the last 6 years? Could she really be the witch that this wand matched with and also truly grow to be able to fulfil her oath. Taking the wand with both hands, she sent her apologies to the wand, and to her surprise received a calm acceptance. Bending it, it snapped with no more effort than a dry twig, the effects of doing so reverberating through her magic causing her to drop to her knees.

“Well done child, you couldn’t have done what you needed to do and keep that wand. Minerva, take her to the Armoury and find the metal deposits. Make her a new wand focus out of metal and stone. Make her a wand that proclaims her oath for all to see. She is your apprentice, make her a wand that you will be proud to see her wielding.”

Penny can only gape at the two with Hogwarts proclamation.

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Aurors surround a translucent woman kneeling in privet drive, while an unspeakable tries to make their way upstairs in the house. They can just make it close enough to the top to poke a mirror round and see an iron saucepan floating in the middle of the hallway. They try, unsuccessfully to cast a spell. Then they pull out a runic plate and feed a tiny bit of magic into it, suddenly there’s now an unspeakable floating beside the saucepan grasping at their robes while they start to look swollen.

“What do you suppose she’s doing?” One of them says to another with Sergeants pips on his robe.

“What do I look like, an unspeakable. I have no Merlin be damned idea.” The Sergeant replies.

“Well do you thing the unspeakable’s ok in there?”

“I have no idea, and you couldn’t pay me enough to find out.”

A pink haired Auror with trainee stripes comes into the garden, “Hey sarge, any idea what a magic singularity is?”

“What is it with all you damn recruits? Do I look like a bloody library?”

“I dunno sarge, I’ve never seen you without your robes.” The first Auror quips back.

“Grr, any more lip and you’ll be on dread duty for a month. As for you, Tonks wasn’t it, what are you doing here?”

Tonks spread her hands, “It’s an all hands, and Moody had to go to St Mungo’s when his eye malfunctioned. He told me to report to you while he was gone, that’s when he muttered something about magical singularities.”

“Well, as most of the resident egg heads can’t actually get here, and the only one that could went into the house 30 minutes ago and hasn’t come out since. You’ve just elected yourself to find another set of egg heads that can come and have a look.”

Tonks mutters imprecations under her breath.

“I heard that, and you asked for it. This is no place for a rookie trainee, even if Moody is the one training you. Now git, and don’t make me come after you to spank you.”

Laughing Tonks leaves the garden with a “Yes, Sarge!” in a super squeaky voice floating behind her.

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Arthur and Molly are sitting at the breakfast table with Aityo eating Breakfast and conversing when the morning owl comes in with the Daily Prophet, it’s also carrying a letter in it’s claws addressed to Arthur. Curious as to why he’s received it he opens it, reads it once, reads it again and then jumps up and laughing pulls Molly up into a dance.

“We won, We won.”

“Won what dear?”

“The summer sweepstake that the Prophet does. We can afford to do the repairs we keep putting off and take the family for a holiday.”

“What’s a sweepstake?” Aityo asks.

Molly disengages from Arthur and crouches down beside her, “Are you aware of what competitions are?”

“Aityo knows, yes.”

“Well a sweepstake is a type of competition where the result is down to pure luck rather than any skill. Anyone that enters could win.”

“Why have that type competition?”

“The people running it usually do it to draw attention to something, in this case the Daily Prophet. For the people that enter, a low chance of winning for a low investment of money. It cost Arthur 10S to enter, at Christmas, and for him that’s an hour or so’s work. We’ve just won 1000G, which would take Arthur nearly 10 months to earn.”

“So it’s like checking the Skypyre’s nest, if lucky food for tribe for weeks. If not, only took short while so no great loss.”

“I don’t know what a Skypyre is, but it sounds like it.”

“Skypyre is flying bird that is on fire, like fire that takes dead onward.”

“Will you be going to Petunia’s today?”

Aityo closes her eyes and concentrates, “No, big magic there, no elves go till big magic gone or be trapped there and need to walk back.”

“I hope they’re ok. Would you like to stay with me or go with Arthur today?”

“Aityo go with Arthur, elfling need meet more people.”

“OK, I’ll see what I can get sorted today then, would you both like me to cook lunch?”

“Aityo like that. Aityo sorry she not good at house-elf stuff.”

“Aityo, you might not be good at cooking and cleaning, but you are good at keeping animals, and getting rid of pests. It was your idea to keep chickens and goats and they’ve done wonders for our budget, you’ve also kept the gnomes out of our vegetable patch. Don’t compare yourself to other people.”

“Yes Molly.”

“I think I’d like lunch too Dear.” Arthur added just to make sure he’d not been forgotten.

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An agent at MI5 looks concerned when a day that they’d normally receive a phone call for a minor piece of advice goes past without the phone call. They’d built a good rapport with the target and were working on setting up a face to face where they could establish trust. Their superiors weren’t happy at the pace, but it was still fast compared to some contacts they’d made with people that spend time in foreign countries. If they didn’t call in a while then they’d call them about home schooling progress. Meanwhile they passed a note up the chain to have a field guy discreetly check in on them to see if anything had happened.

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It was their free period and Hermione was watching Harry and Dudley chatting and laughing with Karen. She was trying not to feel left out, but it was hard as they’d pretty much ignored her when she tried to join in. She was sure it wasn’t deliberate as she knew Harry wasn’t like that.

“It’s hard isn’t it, watching someone you’re magic is pulling you to doing stuff with other people.” Hermione jumps as Hogwarts starts talking softly beside her ear.

“How do you know?”

“I recognise the look, as I’ve felt it twice in my life, the first time. The first time it was a young Magi, and they’d just passed their tests and had worked with me for several months. We were getting closer, but he, I think it was he, died when China happened. The second time, well at the moment I’m holding back because it would be an unequal relationship. But I’ve known for nearly 50 years.”

“How do you stand it?”

“You remind yourself that they feel it too, even if they don’t know what they’re feeling yet.”

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Tonks trudged up the pathway to Hogwarts, not only had her day gone to pot when she was asked to find egg heads that could answer questions, it was now raining. She might have guessed that she’d been dumped with the shitty job once she’d been sent from the Archives to the squad room, then down to the DoM, then back to Privet drive 8 times with different researchers who wanted to investigate and take the glowing stone that the figure was kneeling over, only to find out they couldn’t get through the wards at all. One unfortunate actually killed himself trying, and they’re not sure where another one ended up after they tried to portkey in. But given that somehow everything except them and the portkey actually made it to the destination, wherever it is will be uncomfortable. Finally she was given permission to visit Hogwarts and talk to the masters there. The fact that she was given permission to do that over calling in international help showed how much they wanted this kept inhouse. Hagrid walking beside here didn’t even seem to notice the rain in his long coat and hat.

They get to the entrance, and it only takes her three casts of the drying charm to get all the water out of her clothes. Hagrid calls for a house-elf.

“Soapy”

“’agrid calls for Soapy?”

“I did indeed, how are you today?”

“Soapy doing ok.”

“Good, good, sorry this isn’t a social visit, but I’ll be inspecting the unicorns later if ya want. In the mean time would you be able to get Professor McGonagall please?”

“Soapy will tell her she has a guest, and come see unicorns later.”

Half an hour later Professor McGonagall comes down the stairs. “Good afternoon, what brings you here today?”

“I need to ask you if there’s anyone here that might know what a magical singularity is.”

“Quite possibly, you signed up for the summer course didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“Good, then we might as well see how you’re doing. Touch this crest and then find your magic and lower it.”

“Erm, what do you mean?”

“Have you found your magic yet?”

“I have, I got that bit, it’s the lowering that I don’t understand.”

“Find your visualisation and then imagine it lowering or closing, or something like that, take your time though if this is the first time you’ve done it. Once you’ve done it, open it up again slowly and I’ll tell you to stop if you don’t realise when you need to.”

Minerva looked up from her lace, “Slow down, it takes time to do it the first few times as ya can’t force it.”

It was 45 minutes later that Tonks disappeared, Minerva disappeared quickly after that.

“Congratulations Miss Tonks, you did very well. As you’re at this stage now, the password for the general floo is ‘Hogwarts Lives’” I want you here any time you have free time between 4am and 8pm, and practicing that until you no longer need to touch the crest. That’s by the by I will take you to meet Hogwarts.”

“Erm Professor, Hogwarts is the school.”

“You’re more right than you can possibly imagine.”

She led them through the halls to where everyone seems to have gathered to chat and socialise, including a ghost.

“Hogwarts. This is Auror Tonks, she was here last year. She asked to see the resident magic expert.”

“What seems to be the problem child?”

“Do you know what a magic singularity is?”

Suddenly Tonks feels as though she’s a bug under a microscope.

“Child, speak carefully. Why do you need to know what a magic singularity is?”

Tonks clearly and concisely laid out what she’d seen today and what Moody had said.

When she finished Hogwarts had a thunderous expression on her face. “Harry child, I think I know what happened to your mother. I’ve heard you asking why she didn’t show up when you went into the dream before. You also said that Albus had set up some special wards that you needed to keep charged. In his ignorance he did something absolutely abhorrent, he bound someone’s living soul into wards. I gave of myself willingly, and that made it a blessed action. But your mother, she gave her life to save you, and she knew there was a chance she might survive the experience. He turned a beautiful gift into an unwilling sacrifice driven ward.”

With a great deal of effort she reigned in her anger before she hurt someone accidentally.

“Karen, just how angry were you last night?” she ground out.

“I actually don’t remember anything after finding Azaria lying on the floor.”

Hogwarts vanishes for a moment, then reappears.

“Azaria will be arriving at 8, so Tonks, I need you to meditate and focus on supressing your magic as you did to get here. If we don’t knock you out once The Dream starts, then you’ll be able to talk to the second most knowledgeable person on magic in the school at present. Though she probably knows things I don’t. Also try to listen in, as this is the only time I’m going to tell this story. It is also the only time that I’ve ever seen a Magical Singularity as Rowena later called them. You will then understand why we’re lucky that there’s more left in this country than Hogwarts.”

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Hogwarts is standing in what would come to be known as China, in the distance she can see the tentacles of one of the elder gods reaching down through the clouds and tearing through the city below like it was a sandcastle. Tentacles burrowing through the earth seeking out something, they thought it was a metal, but they weren’t sure. By her side was her mate, he wasn’t yet ready to join her as he wasn’t strong enough to equal an Archmagis, but he had time. What other Magi and gods they could spare from defending the other terrorities were here too, as were all of the current gods of the area. At some unseen signal they all started to pour magic into trying to drive it off, Pangu was the first to realise and the first to act. It didn’t leave because someone had learnt it’s name and used it. Charging forward he called everyone to shield the area and save as many as they could. Spurred on by his actions many of the younger magi failed to heed his words, including her mate. 

She could feel the magic in the area starting to rise already and knew that something bad was going to happen. Running after her mate she tried to catch up with him while also adding her own magic to the shield the others were building. Suddenly the world started to twist in ways reminiscent to the places near the shore of the sea of magic, as the levels of magic rose beyond that which their world could bare. Pangu was so far ahead that she felt when he reached the city, and died a true death. The only true death of a god that she would ever see.

He poured his body and soul into the magic he was forming, and the tentacles pulled back for a moment and struck. At that point the only thing that saved her life is that she had already acclimated to magic of this level. Still she was tossed back to the shield line like a skipping stone across a lake. Her mate and others like him were not so lucky, the explosion of magic turned all within the shields to dust and sand. The few mortals that survived the blast were immediately elevated to the levels of experienced magi. Since then, only the hardiest of life has grown in that place as it was scoured of magic, when it was all drawn back in.

It didn’t even kill the elder god, just injured it enough to make it retreat.

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Minerva did her best to comfort her master through the harrowing tale. After she finished everyone was silent until the dream opened. Tonks grunt brought everyone back to the here and now, and Minerva said loudly and clearly.

“Tonks, you must keep your magic supressed unless you want to die. If you don’t want to die keep your magic supressed.”

“Merlin Professor, you sounded just like Moody then.”

“You sound like you’re doing better than you did to get here.”

“Yeah, well Moody and I used different terminology so it took me a while to work out what you wanted me to do, and we never practiced raising my magic slowly either. But, ugh, this is harder than it was when I was practicing with Moody.”

It was at this point that Azaria stepped into the room and stopped staring at Tonks, “Who is this vision of beauty that I see before me. My Titania I must ask thy permission to court her.”

Before Karen could reply, Hogwarts burst out “Has someone put something in the Posiden forsaken water? I have never heard of three pairings happening so close together in time and place.”

“Desma, that would be because you’ve forgotten that I was once a goddess of fertility, specifically childbirth.”

Several people all spoke at once, “Selene!”, “You!”, “Great One!”

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Petunia’s life settled into a routine, as she helped clear out Lyasa’s magic and tried to teach her to meditate to visualise her magic. They were fed fruits and nuts, and if they were lucky a bit of meat stew that might have a lump of meat in it. Over the years that she’d been here she’d learnt not to wonder where the meat came from, just be happy that there was some. If she wasn’t seated by the throne wearing an iron collar she was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floors, relaying straw, or cleaning up after the evening’s entertainment. She’d learnt not to throw up, as doing so just meant that was the sauce on their dinner later. The presence of the dream was constantly there in the background, but she was kept here by her manacles, and then by the warning that Lyasa gave her about how it’s difficult to find your way to the desert, and harder still to find a particular place in the desert if you don’t know the way there.

Only once every few years did they make sport with humans, and she’d been forced to watch through one with the king whispering into her ear what he was going to do to her once her magical body developed. The thought of another man putting their hands on her left her wanting to vomit, Karen was her sexual orientation now, and, as far as she was concerned, would be forever. She was also starting to understand why humans were such sought after slaves here, as Sidhe were slow by nature. Not in movement, rather in action. If something didn’t need to be done now, it seemed as if it would take them years to achieve it, as she came across a half built wall, and the person building it was busy carving the next stone they were going to put down. Coupled with the pace that Lyasa was learning, she figured that the only reason they hadn’t been overrun before is that they only sent out raids when they were bored or had run out of slaves.


	30. Chaper 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Corrected the number of minor cycles of Ghealach from 4 to 8 as the math didn't add up the way it was supposed to.

“What? I asked you to be a my eyes, ears, and hands. I’m more than capable of being my own voice.” The goddess said.

“But why turn up now?” asked Karen.

“because apart from a small blip a while ago you have effectively been invisible, and then bam, you set off a massive great beacon that can be felt in the sea. What do I find when I get there? Some poor soul trying to funnel the whole thing into a tiny little stone. So, you should really go and deactivate the beacon before it kills them, or at the very least give them more material to work with. Biggest lump of that black rock that burns very hot. Or granite eithers good. The rocks made out of that stuff would be better but they’re harder to find. Anyway I then had to follow you as you still don’t show up. When I chose you, I didn’t mean for you to be covert, if I wanted that I could have picked any old mortal, instead of one that was having their vessel defined so that their magical body could grow. You know, it really was inspired for your mate to take you straight there, rather than just making you kinda magical and then training you up, as it will save you a lot of dangerous acclimatisation and slowly moving to the sea. OK, so it will be hard to learn proper control for a few years, that’s nothing.”

Harry perks up, “What did you mean there’s someone trying to funnel the whole thing into a tiny stone.”

“Oh, that, someone seems to have done what Desma here did, and bound themselves into the wards in the area. However, as they didn’t do the smart thing like they did with Hogwarts, and place the ward stone on a world where magic can be vented off safely if needed, they’re trying to fit all of that magic into a ward stone that’s around the size of my fist.” She holds up her fist to demonstrate.

Becoming distraught harry turns to Hogwarts “Hogwarts, we have to help her, we have to help my Mum. Please, tell me, what can we do?”

Hogwarts looks at Harry helplessly, as there’s lots of things she could do if she wasn’t tied to Hogwarts.

Minerva looks on sadly, as she doesn’t know of anything, “The only thing I can think of is to get Professor Babbling involved as she’s got a mastery in Runes. But that’s going to take time, maybe more time than she has.”

Harry looks around for anything, anyone that can help, and realises that apart from Hermione, Ginny, and Luna all the other students left at some point. Then she looks at the goddess.

“I’m sorry child, I used to have great power, but without a body to contain my power I daren’t try anything on Earth for fear of making things worse.”

Hermione looks around and sees that Karen, the only one that might have read about muggle Scotland is lost in thought, not that her health was good to start with.

Exasperated she asks, “What sort of rocks are the nearby mountains made from?”

“I dinna know what ya talking about Miss Granger.” Minerva replies, speaking for the magical adults.

“I know what you’re suggesting, but I never thought to check.” Karen adds sadly.

Excitedly she rushes out, “Well, as no-one else has any ideas, Karen, Harry, and I take our Geography course books out there and try to see if we can’t find some Granite. Azaria, would you mind taking Dudley and Auror Tonks back to the house so that Dudley can let her know that you’re ok, and then you can apologise and also evaluate the situation as Hogwarts said you were the second most knowledgeable person. Hogwarts, do you still have the notes for how your ward scheme was done? And is it possible to move a ward stone? In short, I think that we need to buy time for the experts to come up with a permanent solution.”

She then sits back again, happy that she’s found a way to feel useful, after feeling so stupid for most of the year after being in such close contact with experts day in and day out. 

Her mood got even better when Harry hugged her and whispered, “Thank you Hermione, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Well what do you think?” asks Hogwarts

“To be honest master, I was thinking that it was going to take a long time to find someone to buy stone from, then for them to get the stone, then to ship it to privet drive. I didn’t even thing about going out and finding our own.”

Azaria mused, “I too had no thoughts as to how to resolve this, as she would die long before my people could come up with a solution. You live such fleeting lives.”

“You’d be surprised at that, while their lives are short while you’re here, your people live for the same length of time as they do. Closer to the sea, time really does lose meaning, as you could visit for an hour and find 100 year’s had passed, yet somewhere else you could visit for 100 years and come back to find it’s been but an hour. In those places it’s your strength of self and will that determines the rate of time. Over thousands of earth years it averages out. No one’s listening are they.” The goddess trails off when she realises that everyone else has moved on.

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Once they got out of the wards Karen transported them to the nearest mountain they could see. Karen sent Harry on ahead with the book while she and Hermione have a slower look around. Once Harry is out of earshot Karen starts a conversation.

“Hermione, are you OK?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure, as I saw you looking out of sorts earlier, and you looked happier when nobody had thought of coming out to find Granite.”

“No, No, I’m fine.” Hermione said in a tone of voice that suggested that actually she was anything but.

“Now I know that something’s up, is it your schoolwork?”

“No!”

“Is it Harry?”

“No, maybe.”

“Is it the new warlock work?”

“Yes, no, I don’t know.”

“So how does Harry and the new warlock work affect each other?”

“It’s just that she’s doing so well in it, and is finding the classwork easier as well.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“It is, but…”

“Been good at classes was the thing you were always good at?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“What’s the difference between an Artist, Architect, and an engineer?”

“Um, they, er no they all draw buildings, I don’t know?”

“An engineer is a builder, they know how to make thing and make them functional.

“An Artist knows how to create, they can draw on their imagination to paint, or sculpt fantastical scenes, but their buildings are unlikely to stand on their own.

“An Architect is somewhere in between, they have the imagination needed to design wonderful things, and the knowledge they need to make them work. But they’re not as good at either task as the artist or the engineer.

“When it comes to magic, Harry is more of an Artist than an Engineer. She has a highly instinctive grasp of magic, and can make it run rings around her barking for treats. You are very analytical, you need to know, and understand why. Do you turn to books for most of your knowledge?”

“You know I do.”

“And the problem is that the magic that you’re learning can’t be found in a book that’s actually useful.”

“I guess.” Hermione sulks.

“If that’s the case, then why was Hogwarts so interested in your Chemistry books?”

“Err, I’m not actually sure. But I think it’s to do with Transfiguration.”

“Why are you all sewing all the time, and why is Minerva lace making?”

“Control?”

“Why do footballers practice keeping the ball in the air all the time when it’s got nothing to do with the actual game?”

“Control.”

“Yes, but how does that translate to the games they play?”

Hermione thinks about it for a moment, “Better accuracy, control, power, and an instinctive idea of where the ball is.”

“Now apply that to what you’re doing with magic.”

“Oh. Ohhh. That’s why classes have been getting easier.”

“So, what sort of person are you, artist, architect, or engineer?”

“Oh, um, Engineer?”

“Then why are you trying to compete with an artist in what they’re good at?”

“But, isn’t that all that’s left, as we’re learning that the basics are all you need?”

“Why do mathematicians exist when all maths can be done with addition and subtraction?”

“Why do mathematicians exist…” Hermione falls into silence while she thinks about this.

Harry comes back excitedly, “Karen, Hermione, is this granite?”

Hermione pulls her wand and absently taps the rock that Harry’s holding, then thinks for a moment.

“I think it is, mark where you found it, and if we don’t find something better quality it should do.”

“How did you work out that it was granite without looking at it?”

“What, oh, that. I came across an advanced potions identification charm that lists the ingredients and their ratios. It looked horribly complicated until I read the theory and realised that it’s only complicated because the wand motions need to match up with the words. But we don’t have to use either.”

“I wish I could do that.” Harry walks off to mark the stone.

Hermione stops dead, “Oh. Oh! That’s what you meant isn’t it. Mathematics exists because there’s quicker and easier ways of doing things than the basics. Engineers exist because they know what’s possible and how to apply it. But what about the people that know but can’t apply it?”

“Researchers.” Karen deadpanned.

Hermione hugs Karen tightly and then runs off, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, I just wish it was so easy to solve my own problems.”

“It can be, you just need to identify what you need to know and set yourself goals.” The goddesses voice came from beside her.

“I still don’t know your name.”

“Well, as it’s already been said, it’s Selene.”

“Oh, oh. Titan Goddess of the moon.”

“Don’t ask me about him, while I’m over it. It’s only because there’s so much time that it’s a small part of my life now. We can’t forget in the same way that those born mortal can, and so we can’t heal the same way. Our memories never dull, and so the only thing we can do is avoid them. It’s why so many gods were hedonists by your standards.”

“Ok, I’ll try to remember. What sort of goals?”

“Start with asking yourself questions like ‘How am I going to get there?’, ‘How am I going to find her’, ‘How can I fight without moving realms?’”

“How did I forget that?”

“Grief makes us all short-sighted. Desma is giving me hope though, it’s why I’m sticking around.”

“Who’s Desma, and hope for what?”

“That’s Hogwarts name, and she’s found a second mate.”

“It is, she said she forgot it. Oh, and good for her.”

“I’m really not surprised she forgot it, it’s not like you use your own name that often, and she was more often called by her title when I was around. I doubt that changed. While I remember, you’ll want the darkest granite you can find. I’m going to explore and see what’s changed since I lived here.”

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Azaria unsteadily walked up the street made from some sort of black rock to the house she arrived in yesterday. She had just been subject to the most uncomfortable magical transportation she’d ever experienced, and her magic was still rebelling.

“My lady Tonks, while I would like to get to know you much better in the future. Would we be able to start by teaching you how to travel properly?”

“What’s wrong with apparition?”

“Is that what you call it? It was worse than when Lyasa took me on her first jump when she was 240.”

“Yeah, well sue me, I’m only 19.”

She stops suddenly, and the other two take a couple of steps before Tonks realises that she’s not there.

“Hey, why did you stop?”

“This is where the wards start, can you feel them?”

“Erm, no?”

“I have to wonder how you can be so ignorant of the magic around you.”

“Well, sorry that we weren’t born in a world where magic slaps you on the bum when you’re born, and then slaps you round the face for every birthday. Are you not coming in?”

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather wait here until you assure the guardian that I am not here to cause any trouble, and indeed wish to see what I can do to help.”

A few minutes later she felt the magic change from wary to neutral. Taking it to mean that the negotiations were successful she stepped forward carefully, ready to jump back at the slightest hint of an attack. As she crossed the boundary she felt the pressure rise to something she could live in. Walking to the entrance to the house she absently became intangible for just long enough to pass through the door before taking form again. Pulling her magic into a skin-tight shield she carefully made her way up the stairs to where Karen had taken her from. Standing at the top of the stairs she could see the singularity and the dead body of a person wearing grey robes. Floating in the centre of the singularity was the saucepan that was placed on her chest. Having seen enough she walked out through the back door and met Tonks and Dudley in the Garden, along with a few other Aurors.

Speaking slowly and making sure she’s using the right words, Azaria informs Tonks of what she’s found, “I have some good news and some bad news. Though as they’re the same thing I’ll say it straight out. What’s up there isn’t a magical singularity, it’s not strong enough. It is a magical snarl though, and a pretty nasty one at that. Children tend to make them before they’re around 100. So, the good news part of it is that the iron pan is stabilising the snarl, so the guardian can probably slow down a little without risking any damage, however if the pan wasn’t there the magic would have probably passed through the wards and increased the magic level in the area until the curtain parted and it could equal out again.”

“Guardian, would you mind if I had a look at your heart stone I will not lay a hand on it?”

Lily moves back slightly.

Azaria examine the stone with her senses, and recognises the form that it’s heading towards. Grabbing a stone from the flower bed she changes it to the form that her people use to anchor spells if they ever need to, so that they don’t need recharging every five minutes.

“Guardian, you may find this a good template for what you’re doing with your Heart Stone. We use them at home to anchor spells so that we don’t have to keep replacing or recharging them all the time.”

“Before we go, there’s a dead body in a grey robe in the snarl, looks like they suffered from over exposure to magic. Guardian, may I have your permission to leave this place by magical means?”

Once Lily nods Azaria turns to Tonks.

“My Lady Tonks, would you do me the honour of taking my arm. Dudley if you could take my other hand.”

Once they were both holding her hands she continued, “If you would close your eyes and follow my magic, I’ll show you the right way to travel.”

With that she arched her magic up and through the wards to the location that Tonks apparated them from. Then she pushed off with her magic and they jumped, then landed with barely a touch of magic to steady their arrival.

“You may open your eyes now, we’ve arrived.”

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Ceeley was puzzled, they’d been keeping her in a world that had so much more magic than earth and said that they’d take her home with them when she learnt to obey them. There were a couple of other elves here, and they looked absolutely miserable, but it had only been a day.

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“Happy Birthday to me, Happy birthday to me.” Petunia sings to herself when they’re returned to their cell for the night.

“What are you singing?” Lyasa asks.

“I’ve been trying to keep track of time, and I’ve been here for 3 years now, so I’m now 33.”

“Huh? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Aren’t you 286 now?”

“What? No! I won’t be 284 until Bethnes reaches fullness again and Ghealach is on its third waxing crescent.”

“How long does that take?”

“Oh, um, athair did tell me, but that was a long time ago now. Erm, I think that Ghealach turns 8 times each time Bethnes turns once, and that has, erm full, gibbous, half, crescent, eight phases. Each phase is, err, 340 something days long. We’re also slowly coming up to the peak of the rising light, and that’s scary.”

“Oh, then I’ve only been alive for once cycle of Beth ness.”

“No, Bethnes silly. That means that you’re only a toddler.”

Petunia sits back heavily against the wall, the enormity of the future spreading out in front of her threatening to crush her spirit.

Climbing into her lap, Lyasa tries to comfort her, “You still only look like you’re around 350, so don’t worry about it. Slow down and really appreciate the world around us. When you go outside stop and look and feel. Not just with your body but also your magic. We are magic and we live in a world of magic. Have you even looked at your own magic, as you showed me how to see it, and keep telling me to lower mine, but I’ve not finished looking at it as it already is, so why would I want to move on when there’s so much still to uncover in there?

“I never even considered that I could have a world inside me just waiting to be explored until you told me how to find it.”


	31. Chaper 30

Harry was so tired that he was almost falling asleep on his feet, but they’d finally found a large area with granite that Hermione approved of. Using the simple method of transfiguring 5 straight edges around a block the same height as him and then levitating the block out before cancelling the transfiguration they now had hopefully enough granite, though he had no idea how they were going to get it home as it was heavy enough he wanted to swear but couldn’t think of an appropriate word that wouldn’t get him beaten. He was currently hugging a crying Hermione that was alternating between saying how what he’d done should be impossible with such simple spells, and saying that she’s an engineer and it’s obviously happened so she needs to understand how.

“Erm, Hermione.”

“Yes Harry.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we’ve got a, erm, obscenely large stone that we need to get home. Neither Karen or I have been able to work out how as it’s too big to for Karen to apparate with. Do you have any ideas?”

Hermione looks up at him with an incredulous look on her face, “We just need to use the shrinking charm, like they do in the bookshops for people that have bought a lot of books. I looked it up when we got to Hogwarts, but it was too complicated for me at the time. One moment.”

Harry watches as her eyes close and start to move around in her, I’m re-reading this book in my head pose.

“Oh, I see, they should really teach muggle math at Hogwarts, as they’ve made a right hash of…”

“Hermione. You know I don’t understand math as well as you do, as you’ve been better at those subjects since we met. Can you do it, and if you can, can you teach me how to do it later?” He interrupts her train of thought before she goes off on a tangent.

“Oh, right. No wand needed as it’s not that precise.”, she promptly shrinks the block down to the size of a breezeblock.

“There, careful, it’s still going to be heavy, but it should be manageable now. I could probably get it smaller if I read up a bit more on multidimensional maths and string theory.”

“Hermione, if you can do that so easily, why do you struggle with Magic?”

“Because they’re using 3 or 4 different types of math, and then substituting visualisation where it doesn’t fit together.”

“I’ll pretend that I understood that.”

“Don’t worry, you’re taking runes and Arithmancy with me next year.”

“I am?”

“Well, yes, haven’t you heard Dudley and Ginny talking about what it’s like visiting Hogwarts with Nicole at the weekends?”

“No, can’t say I have.”

“Apparently time runs twice as fast there as it does here. We’re both going for the Magi test on the solstice, so that means we can do classes there instead of in the Library or Armoury, and still have time for plenty of sleep before we come back to the rest of the school.”

Karen bursts Hermione’s bubble gently, “You would only get an extra 16 hours a day, how long can people generally go working for 4 hours more a day before they burn out?”

“About 3 weeks before their increased output drops to the same level as before they started, and then there’s a noticeable drop every few weeks after that. Where did I read that?”

“The Mythical Man Month in little whinging library because I hadn’t finished filing it away when you arrived and the bright red cover caught your attention. I flicked through it after you finished to see what was so interesting about it.”

“Oh. I guess that means that unless we could get an extra day it will be pretty useless. But we could do it at the weekends.” Hermione brightens up at the last thought.

“Aren’t you assuming that you won’t just have more lessons to do with being magi on top of the warlock lessons?”

“I am aren’t I.” Hermione says glumly.

“Can we just get this stone home so that I don’t lose my Mother for a second time before I get to know her? We’ve also got school in the morning and we’ve missed the dream already.” Harry exasperatedly interrupts.

Karen takes their arms, and Harry and Hermione heft the shrunken stone between them before Apparating off.

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With the immediate problem endangering Privet drive dealt with, Harry and Hermione had to turn their attention back to their schoolwork. To stop them from running off and doing things that seemed like a good idea, Hogwarts ramped up their warlock training and ensured that Harry and Hermione could flit between the 3 accessible layers of the school without even thinking as well as take large groups of people to the Armoury. To that end she got the house elves to set up a duplicate of the Great Hall and pre-serve the food, and had Minerva hold dinner as if there was going to be an announcement. When Minerva gave the signal, Harry or Hermione had to transport everyone to the new great-hall without anyone noticing. Suffice to say, they both slept soundly on the night they did it and then transported everyone back.

As both Harry and Hermione had deeper magic that everyone else that was a student at the school, as well as all the teachers. Hogwarts also pushed them with the sound and light spell, making increasingly complex melodies for them to follow. To the point where Hermione wrote to her parents for some blank sheet music, and books on musical notation, a recorder, and a basic metronome, which managed to slow down the lessons for the rest of the term as Hogwarts delved into doing this as a new way of recording magical levels, and took it as a challenge. After a few weeks, she sent Nicole back with a few ancient Greek gold coins and told Minerva to buy her something called a Piano, preferably grand as the book said that they were best for hearing the notes properly.

The NEWT students that had joined the Hogwarts house in order to undergo the Summer training found that having to sew for 3 hours every night while carrying on a conversation was actually very difficult and they too started to be seen with a needle and thread flicking away at every waking hour. The one that was taking a Charms NEWT this year reported that the examiner came in looked at the needlework, walked out and came back in half an hour later and told him he’d earned an O but still needed to go through all of the spells for the exam.

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Flitwick passed the test to become a novice warlock, and after his 3rd lesson with Hogwarts he said, “Morgana’s saggy left tit. I thought I had the basics drilled home when I was on the Duelling circuit, but this is ridiculous. No wonder none of my classes are providing any of you with a challenge.”

Hogwarts replied “Well, yes. If you don’t have the basics absolutely buttoned down everything that follows afterwards is flawed. Yours were passable for a first year, but nothing to write home about.”

Flitwick deflated, “What do you mean passable for a first year?”

“We didn’t teach anything about magical theory, structured or unstructured spells, or even freeform magic for the first two years. Instead, they learnt academics, natural world, and combat. The rest of their time was in structured play that would drill the basics into them, as well as an hour of meditation every day. They had to make and embroider their own clothes if they wanted more than the basics that we provided them, they needed to learn the basics of transfiguration to the point where they didn’t need writing materials for note taking. After that the next 3-5 years was in effect a communal apprenticeship going into mastery. But then, none of the current first or second years would have been allowed to take the test for the warlock path.”

“Do you think we should start heading down that route again?”

“Only if things go to pot and you need an institution that is churning out the absolute elite of magic users. However, you might end up going down that route anyway, as if you remember my apprentice basically said that she wants the school to become the best in the world again, only open the doors internationally rather than just the British Isles.”

“Is that why we’re also advertising for a Chem as tree and Fizz icks teacher?”

“Magic is very freeform, and the deeper you go towards the sea of magic, the less the laws of matter, matter. However, a surprisingly large amount of the worlds you could visit, including this one, rely very strongly on those self-same laws. Even the world that Azaria’s people come from relies on them, even though they are far looser than you would expect here. So the closer you can come to using those laws the easier it is to push your will onto the world. Thus a much more knowledgeable but weak witch or wizard could possibly face someone several times stronger if they have their basics down and they know exactly how what they’re doing is going to affect the world. But to do that you need to know your own magic, hence the meditation. Once you know light, levitation, and inanimate transfiguration, how many charms can you duplicate?”

Flitwick opens his mouth a few times, then closes it again, a couple of times raising his hand.

“Apart from the elemental spells, the Engorgement Charm, shrinking charm, general counter, and Tickling charms that we teach first and second year.”

“So if in the first 2 years they learn to do those in their sleep, with additional spells taught for specific games, you no longer need to worry about your student’s still refining their control of their magic. That means that with the grounding in studying that they’ve gained from the academics classes, and the understanding of hard-work that they’ve gained from the natural and combat classes, their magical theory and choice of structured, unstructured, and freeform classes can progress faster. Even in the combat classes, they would be learning the absolute basics, a physical and magical shield spell, use of a blade and blunt weapon, and ranged accuracy for the first two years.

“The problem with our training regime was that after four or five centuries it produced vastly overqualified witches and wizards. They didn’t need to know most of what they’d learnt, or to the extent that we taught them. The warlocks and magi that could tell them why they were needed slowly died out of old age, or defending settlements in the other worlds close to this one. The language changed so most couldn’t easily read the journals and training books that had been left here.”

“That’s humbling.”

“You think that’s bad, everyone’s forgotten why combat spells were invented in the first place. You could probably strip out most of the fluff in the stunning and severing charms, and they would still be just as effective, except without the tell tale glow of the spell.”

“So what were the invented for?”

“Overcoming areas of owned magic.”

“What’s that?”

Hogwarts gives him an evil smile, “I’m glad you asked. Minerva’s needed a sparring partner for a while, and I think she’d quite like to throw some spells around too, so come along. And I’ll introduce you to the techniques that I call the bubble in modern English.”

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Penny found out that researching dark wizards wasn’t actually as easy as she’d thought, especially in Hogwarts library. To make matters worse, as soon as she’d touched her magic and it started doing things on her own she was made to start sewing the same way that Hogwarts house did. And she wasn’t allowed to let it affect her research. As soon at Madam Pince saw that she was sewing, she banned her from touching the books, so that she didn’t get any grubby fingerprints on them. Finally there was an empty place at the teachers table for her, and if she wanted to eat she had to conjure her own chair, cutlery, crockery all with a wand that wasn’t a wand. It was absolutely beautiful, but she couldn’t cast magic through it properly. It was dawning on her that she really didn’t understand what she was asking for, as everyone in the Hogwarts house had made it look so easy until the NEWT students she actually knew joined.

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A few days after she arrived, Tonks handed Karen her post. In amongst the post Karen received a letter from Mike along with her P45.

_Dear Karen,_

_I’m sorry to do this, but with the government evacuating Little Whinging after they found out that the electrical surges were down to a small coal seam being ignited during the storm last year, when it first happened, and that it’s been slowly growing since then. Burning through the underground cables and shorting them out._

_~~Fuck~~ They even sent out a pamphlet about a town in the USA where the same thing happened. Anyway, with the town being evacuated due to the danger of noxious gases, we’ve had to close the Library. Unfortunately, we don’t have space in any of the other Libraries in the county for you, so this is your three-month notice._

_I hope life treats you well._

_Yours Sincerely_

_Micheal Brown_

“Tonks?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s happened to Little Whinging?”

“Oh, Madam Bones went over Fudges head and Petitioned the ICW directly due to an irreparable breach to the Statute of Secrecy if something wasn’t done soon. They had observers there the next day, and agreed that there was nothing they could do to remove the ward or move it. A couple of days later they sent out these pamphlets, and people from the muggle government started showing up and giving people an hour to grab what they needed before escorting them out of the town. Rumours in the ministry say that the ICW bought the land from the British crown and government, under the proviso that it was not under Ministry control, rather there would be a separate division under the monarchy, and that the town must maintain muggle standards of living and technology as well as maintaining all the applicable laws of the ICW. Of course, other rumours are that the muggle government have seized the land and are going to be bringing in muggle unspeakables to investigate magic. Fudge needed to buy a new bowler hat when he found out whatever is true. The Unspeakables from the ICW had to step in to avoid breaching the statute much, and they’re all going to be experimented on to see if they can be given magic, then obliviated. The town has been razed to the ground, which is patently false as I was there earlier. The place was taken over by chocolate puddings, and they were starting to hijack muggles, though that one only started after Xeno did an interview for the quibbler.”

“Well, whatever happened, I no longer have a job. I’ve got no idea what we’re going to do now.” Karen says despairingly.

Materialising from nowhere, Hogwarts flicks Karen’s ear, “Depending on how you do in the next nearly 3 months, I’ve got a job for you. And if you accept, you’ll have a more than a few interviews to do during the second half of August.”

“Huh? But that’s just only 7 weeks away.”

“I know, and as you no longer need to work, and you don’t have to worry about your bills for 3 months, I’m going to demand that you join me in the Sanctuary for some much-needed training so that what happened at Privet drive can’t happen again. Next time someone that you love might get caught up in it and die because you didn’t have the needed control.”

Karen looks like she was going to object until she added that last line, then her shoulders slumped and she started crying.

“I’ll do it.”

“Do you promise to do everything that I instruct you to until the 12th August this year, based on the date in the Nest as long as I promise that I won’t tell you to do anything that will endanger your life until I believe that you are absolutely ready to handle it?”

“I promise.” Karen felt her magic latch out without her direction as a tendril that she hadn’t even known was there connected to it.

“One of the things I’m going to teach you is to recognise those sorts of tricks.”

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Albus is just coming up from the archives ready to head home for some sleep when Fudge catches up with him.

“Mr Dumbledore, what a fortuitous surprise. Would you please join me in my office?”

“Certainly, Cornelius, what may I do to help you.” He plastered on the image of a trusted old advisor that has no interest in Fudge’s job.

“We’re in a little bit of a pickle, as I’ve had to fire Bartimus Crouch as head of International Cooperation as quite frankly he wasn’t doing the job. And so I need a senior member of the government to take over the Tri-wizard tournament organisation. I know you’re not the Headmaster any more, but we were hoping to hold it there after we won the contract over the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Barty was going to be the senior sponsor and hash out the contract with the other countries, but he obviously can’t do that now.”

“Oh, what happened?”

“Once we get to my office I’ll tell you.”

Once they arrived and both had a glass of port, Fudge continued, “Barty was supposed to have taken the incidents that we’ve been having in Little Whinging to the ICW last year, but we found out that he was sitting on it for some reason. Anyway last week, Amelia got fed up with the wait and applied to them directly using her authority as head of the DMLE to bypass me due to the imminent collapse of the Statute. They sent over some observers and rather than come and negotiate with me, erm, us. They went straight to the Queen. The Prime Minister got involved and they agreed that the Statute needed to be upheld. However, the Queen and Prime Minister insisted that because we were in contravention of the Magna Carta they couldn’t hand over the town to our control. So for a modest relocation fee, we now have a new magical district that doesn’t take Galleon by default. Additionally, no one that lives there is a witch or wizard, so we have no legal say over them. The other countries demanded that heads roll, and so Barty’s was the job that went, after all going through normal channels would have only taken him 3 weeks in Geneva.”

“I’ll take the job, and I’m actually still headmaster, I’ve just been suspended until August, so if you have the document I’ll sign it right now.”

“Oh, right, erm. Thank you.”

Once the documents are signed, Albus leans back into a friendly and relaxed position, “While you’ve got me here, is there anything else you could do with a friendly ear for, and maybe some free advice?”

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Petunia had spent the last rotation of Bethnes and a two full cycles of Ghealach learning to slow down and feel and see. Not that it was all one-way Lyasa had also learnt to speed up, and pay more attention to the now. She was slowly acclimating herself to living with lower and lower levels of magic. Something that she’d thought was impossible, and certainly a death sentence. 

Ceeley had also turned up, though there was something preventing her from coming to Petunia. But at least she could feel their bond again, and Ceeley could draw as much or as little magic as she wanted. It was getting harder to remember why she needed to keep her magic suppressed beyond not becoming entertainment, but the fact that half of her was missing stopped her from forgetting all together.

With all the work they’d been doing together, she could feel a parental bond forming with Lyasa too.

With her new appreciation of the subtleties of the magic around her, the rising brightness was actually pretty scary, as she could literally feel the magic shifting and lifting from the world as it seemed to contract. She was starting to think that raiding the earth for a couple of days while this blows over could be a good idea.

Her inner world had grown too, where before it was just a single white Lily. Now it was a pond in a clearing surrounded with Lilies, Petunias, and other trees and shrubs. It looked like it was frozen just at the edge of spring after winter, with the pre-buds on the branches, frogs pulling them out of the bank of the pond and fish swimming under the water. Fresh shoots from the wild flowers were poking up through the earth. She’d let her magic go once and it was beautiful. But she couldn’t do it again safely. Though she was trying to allow a few flowers to bloom near the centre to see what happens.


	32. Chaper 31

Lily stood up from the glowing stone that was now floating above the ground in front of her. Now that she’d finished it felt like she finally had enough room to stretch out and wake up. Absently walking into the house she had a look around and saw that Tuney had started making the place more like a home than a display house. While photos of Dudley dominated the place, she could see the odd photo of Harry. There were also photo’s of someone that she wanted to call Karen but wasn’t sure. She couldn’t see any photo’s of Vernon though, and she was sure he was living here.

Thinking back, her last clear memory before she built up the wardstone was of flying with Hargrid and arriving here with Dumbledore. Then, being left on the doorstep until Tuney took them in. That night Dumbledore let himself in and waved is wand at her and suddenly there was pain, and everything went dark. If she sees him again she’s going to kill him with his own beard. She started to dream a little while ago, but the details are still vague and she’s not sure what is real and what isn’t. She was aware of the fact that she’s slowly dying, it wouldn’t be for a while, but her stone couldn’t pull in magic from the world as fast as she used it. There is a link to a source of magic that occasionally appears, but while plentiful that’s not enough for the short time it appears.

Making her way upstairs she sees a dead body on the floor, and a saucepan that makes her feel very uncomfortable. Deciding to get that dealt with she makes her way back down stairs and outside where she thought she saw some people walking around. 

Approaching one of them, she startles them when she starts to speak, “Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help.”

“Eep. Sorry about that Miss, we all thought you were, well mute.”

“Well, obviously I’m not. Now, I’ve got a dead body and a saucepan that makes me uncomfortable in my house, so would you be able to find someone that could remove it please?”

“Ah. I can do that, can I ask you name so that I can tell them who’s requesting it?”

“Certainly, Lily. Lily Potter. This should be my sisters house.”

“I’m sorry to inform you that your sister is missing, we have been given intelligence that she’s been abducted, but I can’t claim to understand where she’s been taken. Her children and wife are all safe at Hogwarts though.”

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Minerva was exhausted, she’d just got all of her internal exams out of the way, and now Madam Marchbanks was asking to talk to her. She’d managed to get to the Examiners office early and let herself in to set a pot of tea going while she read some of the exam papers from the third years. She could see that she’d need to adjust the lessons next year based on her new understanding of Transfiguration. She heard the door open and the tell-tale click of Marchbanks walking stick come in as she absently conjured a quill, ink and parchment and began making notes of class changes for next year.

Madam Marchbanks must have forgotten something as she heard the tap of the walking stick recede. She finished marking another couple of papers, and had finished her cup of tea when she realised that Marchbanks hadn’t come back. Looking up from her work, her lace making sped back up as she was no longer splitting her concentration so much. She looked around and saw all of the examiners standing in an expanded doorway staring at her.

“Madam Marchbanks, you should have said something and I’d have put down my work.”

“Oh, no, no, dear it was much more entertaining watching you work. I’ve never seen someone work magic so effortlessly, and to cap it all Blowheart has been quiet for the last 30 minutes. Tell me, what spell is it you’re using?”

“Oh, this? The basic levitation charm we teach first years.”

Tofty splutters, “There’s no way that can just be that one spell. I’ve seen masters manage to do what I saw that one chap taking his NEWTs do, but something on that scale, with that precision? I’ve never met anyone that can do that.”

Minerva smiles self-deprecatingly, “Try sewing for 16 hours a day with nothing but that one spell. I guarantee that in a few weeks something like this will seem much more feasible. As soon as I passed my first test as an apprentice, my Master put me on lacemaking instead of sewing. Compared to that, all of this is trivial.”

With a speculative look in her eye, Marchbanks moved the topic forward, “Minerva dear, as this has become a somewhat larger meeting than just the two of us. Would you be able to make the room large enough for us to all sit comfortably and provide nice and comfortable furnishings, that still fit a formal atmosphere?”

The examiner’s watched as a master of transfiguration made the changes to the room look effortless, and all without getting up from their seat or drawing their wand.

Marchbanks takes a comfortable seat, “Well done Minerva, you’ve certainly earned your mastery. Now what I think we all need to know is what have you started doing here? First albus and now this?”

“last year, some of our first years discovered some lost parts of the school that required a certain level of ability and familiarity with your magic to access. Over the summer I learnt how to access these parts of the school and have started to learn the original methods that they used when the school was opened.”

“OK, what does this mean for the future?”

“once we get a new headmaster, I want to open the school internationally. This will then become a school of excellence where if we don’t believe you can keep up, you will be referred to another school where you will probably excel at the normal exams. We plan to offer warlock and Magi accreditation, as we have rediscovered how to do this and what needs to be done to qualify.

“what you just saw is an aspect of that training, as is my lace making. The idea behind it is to drill the absolute basics of magic into our students so that when they start learning spells we don’t need to teach them finesse and control, they’ll already know that. You’ve seen the effects of only a few weeks of this with one of the newt students earlier. There’s another NEWT student, though I think they’ve taken Transfiguration that isn’t as emphasised in the basics. Next year you’ll have three, and I think you’ve got a few OWL students that are coming up this year too.”

“Oh, great, I’ll just give them an O+ and not bother testing their ability to cast spells.”

“You’re going to see a lot more of this even for wanded students, as everyone that’s taking the new magical control NEWT is going to have the same abilities with the basics. Only they use a wand instead unlike the Warlock students.”

“So what’s going to happen next year?”

“If we can get a teacher in for it, we are going to be splitting up the courses into 5 sections as they were originally, Natural World, Academics, Combat, Structured Magic, and Unstructured Magic. This will apply to the current 2nd years and the current first years.

“Until they reach 3rd year, the only spells they will be taught will be a physical and magical shield spell in combat, the light charm, the levitation charm, and inanimate to inanimate transfiguration. Their only classes will be in History, Critical thinking and Analysis, herbology, potions, and combat. Once they reach 3rd year they will need to take Magical Theory and choose two classes to take from each section. As Rituals are now illegal we’re going to replace it with Physics and Chemistry from the muggle world.”

“What would you need to teach muggle subjects for?” The rather snobby transfiguration examiner asked.

“What would happen if I cast a bubble headed charm on you that produced fluorine gas?”

“Absolutely nothing, as the bubble headed charm just produces air.”

Tofty coughs lightly, “So sorry to burst your Bubble, but there’s a small component of the spell that can be changed by a charms master to change the sort of air that’s produced. So as this Fluorine is a gas, it could be substituted into the charm.”

“Ah, erm, well, still nothing.”

Minerva nods, “I see, would you care to transfigure an animal and we can test it? I advise those with a weak stomach to look away until we vanish the experiment.”

Once a rabbit has been produced, Minerva continues in a completely dead voice, “Fluorine is the most reactive element in the periodic table. On it’s own it is naturally a gas, however it cannot be found in it’s gas form in nature. It has an atomic number of 9 and belongs to group 17. Apart from the Nobel Gasses, every other pure element will react with Fluorine to various levels. To demonstrate why we do not create Fluorine gas in the school please observe the rabbit. I will be using a modified bubble headed charm to fully encase the rabbit so that we don’t run the risk of being exposed.”

She then pulls a wand focus and casts the spell, closing her eyes as soon as it’s cast. The sounds of retching telling her that it was properly cast.

“Please note the pale yellow-green colour of the gas, if you ever see someone create a gas that looks like that, vanish it immediately. If you are finished with the experiment, would one of you vanish the remains so that I can open my eyes.”

“You can open your eyes now Minerva.”, Marchbanks voice calls out, only the slightest hint of a waver present.

Turning to the examiner that asked why they should study muggle subjects, “Does that answer your question sir?”

Taking the hanky he’s holding over his mouth away, he dry heaves a couple of times before he’s able to answer, “Yes, that answers my question.”

“Especially for weaker witches and wizards, knowledge is power. This is why the other school teaches in relationship to trades. Unlike our students, whatever job they go into they’ll already have the background understanding of what they need to do. Now that we know about that school’s existence again, it explains so much about why our students tend to only ever get jobs in the Ministry, Aurors, as a Specialist, or skip straight down to basic level jobs such as shop assistants and bar work.”

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Karen was at the point where she’d cheerfully murder Desma, and she was currently used Hogwarts name as a expletive. This was something that Azaria completely agreed with, as she was discovering that there was a big difference between the requirements that her people considered sufficient to be a good wielder of magic, and what someone that’s acknowledged as being able to stand on par with the Great Ones. To make matters worse, the only way she could escape the lessons would be to desert her Titania, who was going through the same things, except she didn’t have the basics down that Azaria had learnt already. She’d already thought she was going to die when the Bloody Rose forced her to lower her magic to the same level as Karen by the simple expedient of hitting her with painful and humiliating spells until she got her magic lower. The Great One that visited Karen wasn’t helping, as she kept asking the Rose if she was going soft in her old age.

Their current exercise was to play Hogwarts musical notation game during while all the curtains were parted and all worlds were accessible. Every few days they had to go further towards the shore and then learn to do it with less than a thought. Azaria hated to admit it, but they were approaching her home world and she was starting to struggle to keep up with Karen, and their watcher the Great One. She just needed a few phases to just stop and let the things she’s been learning settle in her mind before she carries on.

“Azaria!” her Titania shouts

She looks around to find that they’re back in the sanctuary, “What?”

“Are you ok?”

“I’m fine!”

“Are you sure, as I had to shout at you 4 times to get your attention.”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Fine as in I’m feeling good and I’m good to go, or fine as in Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional?”

“I don’t know what Fucked up means, but probably the latter.” Azaria admitted reluctantly.

“What do you need?”

“I need a few phases to let everything that you’re cramming in, and the Bloody Rose is trying to cram into my head, to settle and sort itself out.”

“And how long is a phase?”

“Your days are a similar length to ours, so 340 days long.”

“Why don’t you go and spend a few days with Tonks, and come back here at night to recover, and if you still feel that way when you’re finished, we’ll talk to Hogwarts to see if we can come up with a way for you to get the time you need.”

“But you’re still be training.”

“I’m human, you’re not. This is hard and pushing just how fast I can learn. But it’s not so hard that I can’t keep up.”

“…”

“I can make it an order if that would help you.”

“I…” pride wouldn’t let Azaria say any more.

“Go, I am an adult and can handle this on my own for a few days. If you’re lucky she’ll have time to introduce you to Ice cream and chick flicks as a way of dealing with stress and emotions.”

“Very well, as soon as the curtain parts I will go, but don’t get yourself hurt while I’m gone, or by the flame and darkness I will kick your bodhaig into the next world.”

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Hermione was looking forward to the solstice tomorrow as she’d finally have access to the Sanctuary. Since the conversation on the mountain she’d done a lot of self-reflection considering her age, and she’d come to the conclusion that she was an engineer at heart, she needed to know and understand before she could do. But with what she understood she could do a lot. She’d resolved to improve her ability to work with visualised magic and ability to think on her feet so that she could mesh better with Harry. However, she finally accepted that her strengths just didn’t lay in that direction. Turning back to her book on A-level physics with relish, she thought that it was nice to be able to let herself excel in what she was good at without needing to prove herself better than someone else in their own strengths. Ooh, uncertainty principle, this looks interesting. Marking her page she hurried off to find Professor Vector to see what she made of it.

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Poppy Pomfrey was currently staring at a letter that she’d received from the Deputy Headmistress. It was offering her a promotion to Professor of Healing, but she would need to join the Hogwarts house if she wanted to be one. She’d heard enough around the school to know that essentially she was being asked to train as a warlock. In return she’d gain access to a library of books that rivals that of Alexandria, and someone that has lived for thousands of years and might know things about healing that have been lost to the ages. Deciding that she needed to talk about the offer with someone else, she floo’d to St Mungo’s to talk with her old intern, Healer Gosling.

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As Madam Marchbanks Floo’d to the ICW education department, she reflected that it was good to be the oldest examiner in the world when you wanted to go places quickly.

“Joanne, you got my message. Good, I’d have hated to have to call you back in at this late hour.”

“Yes Griselda, we all know what you’re like, most of us are still two feet in the air whenever you say jump before we remember we can ask how high or even say no.”

Griselda laughs, “That you are. I’ll get to the point, as you know it’s exam season at Hogwarts, and let’s just say they’re doing some very interesting things. Do you still have my old pensive lying around here?”

“Yes, everyone’s afraid of using it just in case it gets chipped and you force them to get a Mastery in Runes just to make you a new one.”

“Well, what are you waiting for the, let’s go and you can see what I mean. I’ll show you my meeting with Minerva, and a little of my afternoon and early evening with four first years.”

“What’s so special about that?”

“I’ll let you see, and you might want to take a paper bag in with you unless you want to be the one cleaning the inside.”

“Very well, I’ll see you in…”

“An hour.”

“I’m sure you can make yourself comfortable while I’m gone.”

An hour later Joanne joined Griselda back in the room, the paper bag showing evidence of having being used.

“What do you think?” Griselda asked.

“I’m not sure, I don’t think that the exams as they currently stand are fit for purpose when it comes to what they’re doing. Beyond that I don’t know, what about you? You wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t already have an idea of what we should be doing.”

“I think that you need to re-confirm their independent status and send the school the recertification paperwork so that they get tested by ICW examiners. Then you need to get your people working hard to catch up with those first years.”

“What do you mean re-confirm?”

“Oh, you’re too young to remember history lessons before Bagshot wrote her books. We used to learn more about the history of Hogwarts, and the international community. Then there’s the little digging you need to do when you’re head of your department, such as what various qualifications actually mean. You did do that didn’t you?”

“Um, yeah.”

“So, you’re aware of the fact that all educational institutions that are accredited to teach Warlocks and Magi are neutral and considered international schools that are not beholden to any Ministry of magic. Same as once someone becomes a Warlock they become a magical citizen of the ICW.”

“I wasn’t aware of that, I guess I should go and read up on the qualifications we still have on record then.”

“You do that. Oh, and don’t send the paperwork until the 15th August.”

“Joanne sighs, anything else you want me to do?”

“Yes, now that we have somewhere that’s certifying warlocks again, I want you to read the requirements of your job description and ensure that you’re in full compliance by the next exam season.”

“Oh bollocks.”

“Careful, you’re showing your muggle upbringing. Don’t want to do that were any of the pureblood snobs can here you.”

“Get off Grizzy, I’ve heard you swearing like a sailor, and you’re as pure blooded as they come.”

“I’m going to find a bed before I head back in the morning, these old bones aren’t as good at staying up as they used to be.” She starts to walk off.

“Oh, and you might want to clear your diary when you go for training, as by the looks of Minnie, you’re not going to have time or energy to do anything else.”

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Petunia was standing at the edge of the compound looking out as fire consumed everything in sight. Lyasa stood shivering beside her.

“It’s beautiful, and I can feel it calling out to me to join in and to play.”

Lyasa visibly shudders, “I don’t understand how you can be so calm standing there, it a ’cur eagal orm gòrach.”

“Try lowering your magic like you’ve been learning, as it could be that you just can’t feel it because you’re too loud magically.”

“I’ll try, but I’m still very young, don’t forget that.”

“That’s why it’s so important for you to learn to do it now while you’re still flexible. You know house-elves, I managed to introduce you to Ceeley last cycle. On earth they’ve learnt to live with their magic nearly completely shut down because they magically suffocate if they don’t.

“Who’s to say it’s not something that you can learn to do given enough time?”

“I know, but it feels like I’m trying to stop the water coming out of a washing sponge.”

“I’ve had some luck with allowing some of the flowers in my visualisation to bloom, while keeping the outside in winter. Maybe you could do the same but with the outside inwards. But that’s not for now, now we’re watching the fire play.”

Lyasa stops shivering so much as her magic recedes from her skin, “You’re right, when I lower my magic it feels less like it wants to eat me.”

“I wonder if this is just another wild hunt, like the Slaugh one you were telling me about.”

“I’ve just remembered something I worked out last phase, watch this.” Petunia holds out one wrist towards the fire so that anyone that’s behind them can’t see it.

She then slowly transfigures the rivet into a screw and catches it with her other hand when it falls out.

“How did you do that?” Lyasa hisses.

“I felt it out with just a tendril of magic to find the impurities and then added small amounts of dust to it, working in slowly till the rivet stopped being pure enough to stop my magic. It’s still resistant as I didn’t want them to test it and immediately figure it out. Think of it as an incentive to learn to lower your magic till you can feel the difference.”


	33. Chaper 32

“Karen, I need your help.” Hogwarts interrupts Karen’s musical control exercises.

“What do you need Desma?”

“Today’s the day, so I need your help to prepare ceremonial focus’ for everyone that passes, I know I’ve already given Nicole one. But she’s my daughter so the only reason I’m allowing her to take the test is so that she can visit on her own rather than keep bothering Fawkes. Anyway, I’d like you do Harry and Hermione’s I’ll do Minerva’s and Daphne’s. They need to match who they are as a person. Once you’ve done that I want you to help me set up the receiving area so that they feel properly welcomed.

“Oh, and I want to say that you’re doing really well too, you also did well sending Azaria away, when she gets back, remind her that it might have taken her 10,000 cuts to master a move, but it only took her 100 to learn it.”

“Oh, you think that she’s trying to be absolutely perfect with everything rather than just learning it to refine later?”

“Exactly, she already has most of the skills that you still need to master in order to progress. She just needs to identify the basic skills that she’s missing to make sense of the other skills.”

Karen spent most of the day trying to visualise what she was going to make for both Harry and Hermione.

In the end for Harry she settled for a smoky quartz core and a very tough light metal that she thought might be titanium for the casing. On the handle she engraved a picture of a man standing solidly on a mountain painting the stormy sky. At the tip working down to meet the near the middle she outlines a woman painting the world below her. She uses touches of ruby to highlight her hair and faint traces of a black metal that she found to highlight the hair of the man.

For Hermione she put streaks of cobalt, gold, and copper twirling and intertwining through a core of clear quartz as the core. For the casing she put a library around the copper handle with an open book on the table, from the library she used random rune like shapes and equations scattering up the wand getting thinner and thinner until all that was left was the 3 metals in the core coming to a point with the quartz.

For the reception they kept it simple and elegant, with a buffet table set off to one side, a table with a velvet display that held their novice insignia and their new wands under each one. As the insignia were all presented correctly she decided to ask Hogwarts about it.

“Hogwarts, what does the symbol on the rings mean?”

“The kite shield is the sworn duty of all magi to defend the earth, and a reminder of our responsibilities. The ring symbolises the political power that we’ve been granted in order to do so. Finally, the wand represents the power that we use to take the fight to those that would attack us. The archmagis insignia is similar, but has a rose instead of a ring to symbolise the fact that we are pledged to protect all life from those that sleep in the sea of magic. Those sleepers are also why we call the time when the worlds are opened the dream. The colours of the wand and the shield indicate the level of the magi, with gold for novices, diamond for journeymen, and iron for full magi. An archmagi has to make their own emblem and it must be made with orichalcum, a metal that can only be found on the shores of the sea of magic. And the shield and wand need to be made from mithril.

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Minerva was nervous, it was one thing to be told that she was ready for this, but now that the time was here she couldn’t concentrate on anything. It was so bad that she’d had Penelope take her first year class earlier in the day. Harry and Hermione both seemed to be cool as cucumbers. At least for her state of mind, Daphne looked absolutely terrified.

Walking over to her she placed her hand on her shoulder, “You look about how I feel. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I just don’t feel like I should be here, I look at Harry and Hermione, and they’re so much better than I am. They each seem to understand magic much more deeply than I do. Yet here I am, about to risk my life to become a magi. What happened to the girl I was who always weighed the pro’s and cons of every situation, and only moved forward once she was absolutely sure that it was right?”

“Was that girl ever actually you?”

Daphne laughs mirthlessly, “According to Trace? No. It was a product of underage occlumency use. But I still remember it.”

“Sometimes things like that do stick with you. It’s a good thing when it does, as it means that you’re learning from your mistakes. You know that I’m an animagus, what you may not know is if you’re doing it the proper way, once you’ve met your spirit animal and have started transforming yourself it’s a one way process that you can’t back out of. There were many times before I succeeded that I wondered if I’d made the right decision. What I’ve learnt since then is that there are no right decisions, just different decisions. The only choice is whether you’re making a decision that will weigh on your conscience or not. I think that your decision about Occlumency was whether to have a conscience or not, so ask yourself, do you like the person you are now, or do you prefer the person you were before?”

“That’s an easy question, the person I am now. It’s just, I think things would have been easier if I hadn’t stopped it.”

Conjuring a sofa, Minerva sat down and indicated that Daphne should do so too, “I’m sure that they would be, but my opinion is that there are certain things that should be hard. Amongst those are other peoples lives, whether that’s taking them or ruining them. I think that the greatest evil in our world isn’t the likes of dark lords, instead it’s the petty bureaucrats in the ministry. It’s because it’s faceless and impersonal. They neither know nor care about the lives that they ruin at the stroke of a pen when they sign an order or draft a law. It’s especially bad in our world due to the rampant corruption.”

Seeing the blank look on Daphne’s face, “Taking bribes, favouring people they know over people who could do the job better, and finally the fact that our system of government hasn’t moved on since the house of commons was first introduced. If you take Cultural studies you’ll find out that the muggles introduced the house of commons a few centuries before the statute, however until after the statute was erected, only freemen and titled individuals could join, and only male landowners could vote. While we’re more egalitarian as a people due to the fact that magic beats brute strength, so a strong witch can put an uppity wizard in their place quite easily, it’s still the same thing. What it means is that most of the people that live in our world have absolutely no say in the government except for the single vote for Minister of Magic.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

Minerva snorts, “Surely you’ve worked that out already. But to spell it out, after tonight we’ll be peers. I’ll still know more than you and have more experience. However, we’ll both be Magi, and I have no illusions that I’m good enough to skip the Novice level. As such I’m going to treat you as a peer when we’re not in class. Part of that means treating you like a young woman and not like a child that needs to be protected, after all, if you’re mature enough to make the decision to go through with this, then you’re mature enough to be treated like a young adult.

“Look at Lavender and Parvati, both of them were at the same stage as you when you joined the Hogwarts house, but what they’ve discovered with being warlocks is enough for them. They can do wonderful things, go and see fantastic locations, and now have great prospects going forward.

“That’s ignoring true wandless magic. One of the skills you learn if you take NEWT defence is silent and point casting. Both of which are a visualisation skill rather than actually just willing the spell to happen, as you still do the spell, just in your head. Beyond that is a mastery level skill where you imagine that you’re holding your wand and learn to cast a few spells like that. Most only ever learn levitation, summoning, the general counter, and the unlocking spell.”

Anything else she was going to say was interrupted as Karen appeared in the room with them. She was wearing a tailored white Kaftan with a simple design embroidered in gold and ruby down the middle of her chest to her belly button. The wings of the kaftan were ornately embroidered with abstract patterns and a couple of distinct images, the first being meeting Selene when she was marked, the second standing over a Sidhe holding a pan, and the third talking to a Sidhe in an alien landscape. Her hair was braided down her back, and she wore golden hoops in her ears.

“Would the applicants for the title of Magi please stand and follow me, I will take you to the testing location.”

Minerva and Daphne stood up and were joined by Harry, Hermione, and Nicole. As they were led out of the school to the same place they did the Warlock trials a month ago, Minerva softly spoke to Daphne.

“How are you feeling now?”

“Much better thank you. The chat took my mind off of it.”

“Good, so am I. Don’t look so surprised, I was feeling nervous when I came over. Nicole is just excited, and Harry and Hermione. Harry and Hermione already know that they can go much further than we are going today and rescue themselves. Hogwarts said that technically they are Archmagis already, but they need to go that far out deliberately in order to get the title. So for you and I, this is the beginning of a long journey that will, I hope one day culminate in qualifying as Archmagis in our own right.” She stopped talking as they arrived.

Karen turned to face them and started speaking, “What lies before you is a simple test, far simpler than the one that you took to become Warlocks. All you need is to step through one more realm into the sanctuary. But be aware that simple does not mean easy, or without consequence. You have all refined your control of your magic, and your ability to step through the first three realms until we believe that you are ready to take this step. You have also spend long enough in this realm to acclimatise to the slightly increased magic.

“When you step through, your magic will undergo a qualitative change, and you must remain in control during this process or risk the dangers that you faced when you took your test to become warlocks. For this test this only applies to you Minerva and Daphne, as the others have already been to this realm or deeper. When you are ready follow me.” With that she disappeared.

Deliberately visualising her flower as an aid for the movement, Daphne allowed it to open further to the place where she’d trained with the musical spell. The feeling of the realms increasing happened as it did before. What she wasn’t prepared for was her flower to turn into a small mountain meadow looking out over a cloudy sky. She struggled to maintain control of her magic as it expanded almost faster than she could keep up with. Eventually it stopped and she was able to open her eyes and come back to her surroundings. At some point she’d collapsed to the floor and as she leaned up she could see that Professor McGonagall, no, Minerva had also collapsed. The changes happening to Minerva were far more marked though, as she could see the years falling off of her face. Her hair became more healthy and luscious, and grew into long flowing coils that reached down to her mid-back.

Staggering to her feet, Daphne found her equilibrium coming back fairly quickly and went over to talk to Nicole, Harry and Hermione. She idly noted that Harry had reverted to her base form for this, as she did for the warlock test.

“How are all of you doing?”

Hermione touched her arm in an uncharacteristic show of concern, “We’re all doing fine, we were worried about you though, as it looked like it was rough.”

“It was… I don’t know how to describe it. But where I used to have a flower, I’ve now got a mountain meadow complete with skyline, and it just kept growing.”

“Well, Professor McGonagall arrived after you did, so I’d imagine she’ll be finished adapting soon. I was worried when you faded out slightly, as we were told they couldn’t knock you out as you needed to experience this and get past it. Nicole here will have her first test when she goes past this realm once she’s older. But until then I guess she’s technically still a Warlock even though she’ll be a novice magi like us.”

A few minutes later Minerva came back to awareness of the world around her too. Once she’d regained her equilibrium Karen and Hogwarts stepped forward. Hogwarts was wearing a similar outfit to Karen’s, though her wings had very few abstract patterns and instead were covered in distinct scenes, both back and front.

Daphne was surprised when her own robes changed to a similar outfit, with a single distinct scene on it. Her lying on the ground with someone else, and two groups of figures standing nearby. Minerva had a similar scene on her outfit. Nicole’s was her lying on a bed while a woman tended to her with a gem off to one side. Both Harry and Hermione’s had a blank space where an image would be.

Hogwarts spoke in a regal tone, drawing attention to her and the table that was between Karen and her.

“Congratulations young Magi, well young to me anyway. You have completed your first trial and your clothing reflects that. Forgive me Harry and Hermione, but I do not have an image that I can use for yours, as the first image should be when you ascended to the ranks of the Magi. As you have just experienced, what sets us apart from Warlocks, witches and wizards is the quality of our magic. From now on, every test that you take on your path will increase the quality of your magic. Until you show either the breadth of ability or you cross the boundary from this group of realms and move into the middle realms, you will remain as novices.

“Even a qualified warlock is a novice to us, as our control over magic is far above theirs, and so we are able to make portals to allow armies to cross the world in but a step. We can render ourselves invisible to any magics they can bring to bear. We can wreak great magics that can raise islands out of the ocean, or put them back under. On a smaller scale, a skilled healer could bring someone back from the very brink of death as long as some of their magic remains in the body.

“Where a warlock is required to demonstrate their mastery to the people of earth. The only time they will ever see our abilities is if have cause to use them on earth.

“Minerva, please come forward my apprentice.”

Once she comes forward she takes a ring from the display and places it on the ring finger of Minerva’s right hand.

“This ring signifies that you are a Novice Magi, and the insignia on it represents our duty, authority and power. We bear a shield because we are the defenders of Earth and the two closest realms from those who would prey on them, we are their shield.

“We bear a ring as a sign of our promise and also as a symbol of the authority we have been given on earth. Even kings and emperors must listen to our words when we speak.”

“Finally, we bear a wand to signify that we will take the fight back to the enemy if they attack. In keeping with the shield, the wand is pointed down to show that we will not attack unless first attacked.”

She takes the ornate wand that was pointed down from above it.

“This wand is now yours, it represents your magical power and ability to respond to threats. May you never need to raise it in anger.”

With the exception of Nicole who already had her wand, everyone else was called forward for the same speech. To everyone’s surprise Hogwarts then continued.

“Karen, please come forward.”

Nervously she stepped forward.

“Karen, it is my great honour to welcome you to the ranks of a Journeyman Magi. You have shown that you are able to cross over the next realm boundary, all that is left for you to do is require the breadth of magical ability needed to be elevated to the ranks of a full magi. As it stands there are non on earth that could stand against you if you so chose just from the sheer amount of magic at your disposal. Please accept this ring as the recognition of your achievement. Due to the asinine laws of your birth country I present to you a staff to act as your focus.”

Hogwarts handed over an ornately carved staff made from an unfamiliar wood, inlaid up the staff was a silvery metal providing highlights to the various images on it. Topping the staff was a regal owl with two agates for eyes, and small black diamonds for the pupils.

“The staff was often the tool of choice for magi that were not warriors at heart. In and of itself it acts as both a weapon and a shield. It can also be used as a support and as a tool to support other things. The owl on the top represents the wisdom and knowledge that you have displayed. The carvings down the staff show your compassion and love of learning. The inlaid metal is mithril, and will conduct your magic far more easily than other materials.

“I have spoken to the Goddess that chose you, and I believe that you have the qualities that I will be looking for in my next Headmaster. You are willing to listen, to stand up to me, and to make your own decisions. Once your training has finished would you consent to take up the position?”

“Um. That is. Er. I think I would be honoured to, though I do need to consider Petunia and Privet drive. But I don’t really know that much about magic, so wouldn’t one of the existing teachers be better?”

“Knowledge can be taught, experience gained. But the qualities that you’ve shown, they’re something you had to develop on your own, and can’t be forced on anyone. That’s why I would like you to be the next Headmaster. But you don’t have to give me your answer now. We have a celebration to get to, we have a bottle of something called champaign that I was told was traditional for a celebration in this time. So all of you can have 1 glass, Nicole you’re only going to have half a glass. Tomorrow you begin training, I want you all to know how to step across the world by the end of term. Minerva I’ll give you the rings for the warlocks in the morning, before you go. I also have the original ward scheme that we used for linking the levels of the school together as well as Rowana’s notes on how to move a heart stone. If you can get an oath from Bathsheba that she will become a magi, you can take them to your office in the library so that she can study them. If we can move Lily into this layer of the dream they’ll be another sanctuary here and it will be easy for all of you to visit when you want.”

Seeing the look in Harry’s eyes, she did the only thing she could, and agreed.

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The last weeks of the school year passed in a blur for Minerva. She was aware of being present for the semi-finals and finals of the competitive clubs, and awarding the winner of each with points and a box of Honey Dukes finest. She was also aware of the fact that the people studying the control owl and Hogwarts house members had been split into their own category for fairness. The cooking clubs meal was divine, horrifying, humorous, and scary at the same time, as dishes made by people of vastly different skill levels was served up at the same time. She’d laughed uproariously at the club that had become unofficially known as the prank club. And some of the photo’s from the camera club were absolutely beautiful.

She should have been paying attention to all of that. But she was just overwhelmed by all of the things that were demanding her time, from her apprenticeship to her magi training where it didn’t overlap. To the placing of adverts for jobs in the national and international press, and drafting a press release for the new direction the school was going to take. They’d had enough responses to the physics and chemistry post that they should be able to offer that at least, and Poppy had accepted her promotion, and was going to join the accelerated class in two weeks time.

She didn’t want to think about the headache that Harry and Dudley’s living arrangements had turned into. She would need to thank Luna for taking things into her own hands and writing to Xeno. He’d arranged with Lily that he would live there and provide the physical guardianship that they needed over the summer while Karen completed her training. Unfortunately part of that bargain had been for him to receive warlock training during the last two weeks so that he could go exploring once Luna was back at school.

Minerva looked up as the door opened allowing Karen to enter in her official dress that she wore at the Magi ceremony.

“Are you ready?”

“No, but I get the feeling this is one of those things like parenthood where you can’t be ready until you’ve already experienced it.”

“Well said.”

“How have the student’s taken your new appearance?”

“Honestly, I don’t think most of them have really put two and two together as I’ve been so busy that Penny’s been taking my classes. I swear that I’ve been hit on more in the last two weeks than I ever was. And don’t get me started on the award ceremonies, while I don’t remember much about them, I do know that I’ve got the owl details of several newt students.”

“That’s true, Harry, Hermione, and Daphne are all in the antechamber waiting for you to call for them.”

The Grey lady floated through the wall, “They’re ready for you Magi.”

“Thank you Helena.”, Minerva responded while musing that it had been a surprise when all the Ghosts had introduced themselves by first name once they returned with their rings.

Minerva straightened up and walked out head held high to take her place at the table.

“Good evening students. This is hopefully the last time I’ll need to be the one giving these speeches.” A Titter of laughter came from some of the tables.

“But as you can see, we are still missing a Headmaster. To the students that gave me their OWL details, I’m sorry to say that you’re all about 50 years too young for me, so maybe you should try talking to people your own age.” She spotted several male students and a female student all flush bright red at their tables.

“There are some things that you all need to know going into next year. Firstly for those that are repeating 2nd year, and those that are currently first years. There will be no wanded classes for first and second years starting next year. Instead you will be taking Herbology, Potions, History, Critical thinking, and a new Combat class. The rest of your time will be spent in structured play and self-guided research. Additionally, for everyone only the new first years will be provided with crockery and cutlery. We will be expecting the rest of you to be good enough at inanimate transfiguration to provide your own from the material found on the tables. If you look in front of you there is now an example of what you’ll have.” She conjured a wooden block on every plate.

“Also, any second years that have not scored at least an A on their Herbology, Potions, and History tests this year will be repeating next year. Additionally, it doesn’t matter who your family is, if you fail to score an A on those exams next year, you will be transferred to the Ministry trade school in wales for the rest of your education.

“Those going into 3rd year you will need to pick two subjects from each department. Members of the Hogwarts house will only need to pick 1 from the wanded subjects, but we recommend you still take both. On that note, please congratulate Madam Pomfrey, who has agreed to teach Healing. This is an unstructured magic course where you will be doing a lot of learning about anatomy and biology. The OWL standards are still being worked out, but don’t expect to be working at St Mungo’s straight out of OWL’s. Padding out the Structured Magic we will be offering a course on Physics and Chemistry. In a moment I’ll hand over to Professor Flitwick to explain why this is a good alternative to Runes for those who wish to pursue structured magic, we are offering this because the old practice of Ritual magic is illegal. Finally, DADA is going to be split up into identifying and countering curses, and identifying and combating dark creatures.

“Before I hand over to Professor Flitwick do any of you have any questions?”

A Ravenclaw OWL student raises their hand, “Professor McGonagall, You’ve mentioned structured and unstructured magic several times, what are these? Also, will any of the rest of the school be able to take these new classes or are the restricted to the 3rd years and below?”

“Good questions, have a pat on the back in lieu of points. We found the original lesson plans that the Founders used when this school was set up. These plans were followed for nearly 500 years, and only changed when life in the world settled down and people that were that highly trained were no longer needed outside a few niche fields. At the time this happened there were several other schools around the world that were also offering a comparable level of teaching so it was no great loss for us to teach to a level that more people would use in their day to day lives. One of the things they did is they split up the classes into 5 segments, Academics, Natural World, Combat or Defence, Structured Magic, and Unstructured Magic. Most charms and all runes fall under structured magic, as the spell only ever does what it’s designed to do, no more and no less. Unstructured magic is based more on your non-magical knowledge and imagination, and if you don’t have that talent then your best results are going to be lacklustre. In transfiguration for example, you only need to know 6 spells, Inanimate, Animate to Inanimate, inanimate to Animate, Animation, Conjuration, and Vanishing. All of the other spells we have you learn are to make it easier to do certain things. I’ll hand over to Professor Flitwick now, as we have a few more things to get through after this, including house points.”

Flitwick stands up on his chair, “Thank you Minerva. Physics and Chemistry are the study of how the physical world works, and how the materials in the world react and form. It will tell you for example that if you make a lever that’s got a handle 10 times longer than the lifting side, the object on the lifting side is 10 times lighter for someone pulling the lever down. It will also tell you that salt is made from Sodium and Chlorine. Why is this important? As of next year we will be introducing spell modification to the NEWT classes, and part of those modifications are things like how much force is applied to something, or what thing this spell is going to produce. If you intend to go into magical construction, it will also help you with calculating where loads can be placed or conversely if you’re in demolition, where you can place the least force to have the greatest effect on the building. For those of you doing Runes it can be especially useful as you can use the calculations you learn in those classes to simplify the runic arrays you create at Owl and Newt level. That is right Professor Babbling isn’t it?”

“It is, though they wouldn’t be touching that sort of array until NEWTS.”

“So like Magical Theory, which will be a mandatory subject for all 3rd years, it won’t do much on it’s own, but in combination with other subjects it will magnify the effects of the effort you put in compared to someone that hasn’t studied those subjects.” With that he sat back down.

Standing up again Minerva continues, “I would like to give a big round of applause to the School quidditch teams, with their combined score we placed 6th in the league, which is very respectable given this was our first year. I hope that our captains have learnt from this and are able to do well next year as well.

“I have two more announcements before we get to the house points. Harry, Hermione, and Daphne please come in.” She watches as the three of the come in looking rather self-conscious.

“These three along with myself are the first members of the school to seek and earn our status as Magi, we are all Novice Magi. Nicole, please stand up. Nicole has also earned that status, but she did it in order to be able to visit her mother, so we have agreed that until she wants to do more, she will remain a member of Hogwarts house. Thank you Nicole. As part of becoming magi we gave up our national and familial ties. Our parents and siblings didn’t stop being family, rather we no longer have a duty to our house or our nation. Instead we are now citizens of what is now the ICW. That doesn’t mean we can’t inherit, rather it means that it will be down to our children to carry on our family name if it involved in politics. This brings me onto my next announcement, Hogwarts has chosen a new Headmistress, and she has agreed. Pending a vote by the class representatives to veto the appointment she will be your new headmistress in September. So I would like to introduce Journeyman Magi Karen.”

Karen enters without flair and stands where the headmasters chair would be.

“Good evening, I’d say I was looking forward to being your new headmistress, but I’d be lying. I’ve never had a job like this before, so to say I’m nervous would be like saying that NEWTs are a little hard. Fortunately for tonight I only have one thing to do, and that is read out some points. First of all, individual achievements.

“Fred Weasley, please stand up. I am told that this is somewhat of a surprise and achievement. You have the honour of earning the most points after deductions out of the whole of Gryffindor house. The next highest was Kate Bell.” She furrows her brow in concentration and conjures a lapel pin with the Gryffindor coat of arms and a little cup with the number 1 or 2 on each of their robes and 1992 on a banner at the bottom.

“From Hufflepuff, would Beatrice Haywood stand up. With an outstanding performance in the Archery competition, you have scored the most points in Hufflepuff. The next highest was Gabriel Truman.” She does the same for their pins.

“From Ravenclaw, would Robert Hilliard please stand up. As part of the winning debate team, and an outstanding showing in the snooker you have scored the most points in Ravenclaw. Roger Davies, you came in second place.”

“From Slytherin, would Gemma Farley please stand up. Not only being on the winning debate team, but also winning your division in the Snooker and Archery, you have scored the most points in your house. In second place is Gregory Goyle, your points total shot up massively after Mr Malfoy was petrified, so while you are repeating next year due to poor academic performance, I hope that you will take this to heart and learn that success doesn’t have to be at the expense of others.”

“Would we be able to have a round of applause for the highest achievers in each house.”

Once the applause died down, she continued, “For the house points, in reverse order, Gryffindor house with 359. While quidditch is very important, more so for some of you than others, it shouldn’t be your sole interest in the school. As it stands, there were also a couple of cases of persistent bullying, and a couple of other issues that were dealt with in private but necessitated the loss of a large number of points. I hope that next year we can see more interest.

“Next we have Hufflepuff house with 362 points, you have almost the opposite problem to Gryffindor house. Loyalty and hard work doesn’t preclude pride or competitiveness. This year you lost a lot of points because you punished those that were interested in the competitive clubs I hope that those of you like Beatrice will not be isolated by your house next year for wanting to do well at something that allows you to shine individually.

“In second place we have Slytherin with 520 points, when I learnt about the house system from my wife, I honestly thought that you’d have more competition from Gryffindor, but instead they barely had a showing in the Archery and Snooker, and no representation in the Debating. That being said, remember that cunning and ambition doesn’t mean cutting other peoples legs out from under them. Gemma, sorry for putting you in the spotlight again, but I’m told that when your team was put together for the debates it was slated to come in near last. Instead what she did is used her cunning to identify where her team mates were strong, and build them up while ensuring that the rest of the team could shore up their weaknesses. As a result they all came out ahead, and she looks better for doing that than if she’d tried to carry the entire competition on her own. Professor Vector congratulations on bringing the inhouse bullying under control and stemming the loss of points that you had at the beginning of the year.”

“Finally, in first place we have Ravenclaw, 3 out of 4 of the top spots in the debating contest had at least 2 Ravenclaws on the team. Additionally, you also had a good showing in the snooker and chess club where the ability to take your time and work out what you’re going to do plays to your strengths.” Concentrating more every member of Ravenclaw house gains a lapel badge with their house crest, a cup, the words house cup along the top, and the year along the bottom.

“As the Chess club hasn’t had any mentions, I’d like to give Ronald Weasley an honourable mention for winning the chess club. If you can improve your work ethic and manners I’m sure that next year you’ll be in the running for highest points scored.”

“Now, I suggest that you all practice making some utensils while it’s not important if you fail. Remember to pack as much as you can tonight, and tuck in. Greysie, if you could bring in the food I would be grateful.”

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

Azaria wakes up in a very comfortable bed, she is surprised to feel someone very comfortable in bed with her. She looks over to see an unfamiliar woman with raven black hair and aristocratic features. She searches her memories to try and work out how she got into this situation. The last thing she remembers is going to something called a night club with Tonks, where they danced and drank the night away. Men kept complementing her on her plastic surgery and touching her ears, even after she rebuffed them. She didn’t understand why they wanted a number from her either. And then it’s blank.

“Hey, Azaria, if you’re not going to go back to sleep could you grab a glass of water?” Tonks voice came from this strange woman.

“Tonks?” she asked incredulously.

“Yep, that’s me, the one and only.”

“But, you look, your hair?”

“Oh, damn, I’m a metamorph and it happens sometimes. If you can grab that glass of water I’ll explain once I’ve woken up a bit more.”

Not knowing how to get a glass of water, Azaria conjures a goblet full of water and hands it to Tonks.

“That was quick, and this is the best water I’ve tasted. I must make a note of the brand and buy it again.”

“I’m sorry, I do not understand what you’re saying. It’s just conjured water.”

“Ah man, you need to stick around then, especially after last night. I’m still sore in all the right places.”

“What happened last night?”

“You seduced me, that’s what.”

“I wish I could remember, but the last thing I remember is that we were in the night club.”

“Ah hell, don’t tell me you were roofied.”

“I…”

“Drugged.”

“I don’t know.”

“Figures, I find someone that likes me for me and it was drug induced.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I do know that my magic sings for you, and the only reason I haven’t been more forward is that we’re still supposed to be courting.”

“Well come here and prove it, and I’ll give you a re-enactment of the highlights.”

───────── ೋღ :hpsd: ღೋ─────────

Petunia jerks awake as the door to their cell is slammed open.

“Get up you two, the Oberon has decided that you’re not going to die, so we’re moving you to the city. And don’t think that you’re getting rid of those cuffs just because they’ve sapped your magic to the point they no longer affect you. Azaria may still die or come back, so you’re our insurance.”

Once they were up they were roughly lead into a sealed cell palanquin and transported from their current location to the City.

“Why are they transporting us in this?” Petunia asks Lyasa.

“It’s so that we can’t feel where they’re jumping. If you can feel their trajectory you can work out where you came from.”

“Thanks, do you think you could teach me to do that when we get where we’re going?”

“I can try, though it may be better to get my uncle to do it, as he’ll be in the city.”

“Didn’t you say you used to live a long way away?”

“We did, but my family is the leadership of our clan, and so we were brought to the city as a guarantee of good behaviour, I’ll introduce you to my mother too.”

───────── ೋღ **_Fin._** ღೋ─────────


End file.
